Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Taehyung enjoys walking at night.

He enjoys the sound of his footsteps, solitary, rarely joined by anything else. Sometimes the whirling whistle of wind in the autumn and winter, or the gentler leaf-rustling breeze in the summer and spring. Occasionally the hum of a dying street lamp as moths dance in its dimming light, or the songs of an owl hidden in shadowed trees.

There is much, much more he can hear, if he were to reach for the sounds. A shopkeeper blocks away, finally flipping the switch on the buzzing neon sign in the window from open to closed, letting the darkness stretch out in the night. The low bass from a nightclub far enough away that others would have to take the train to get there. The quiet splash of water as a frog jumps into a pond in another park across the city.

He can hear many things if he wants to listen, but he doesn’t. He likes the click of his boot’s heels against the sidewalk as he walks, alone in the dark night.

He takes the same route he always does. From his home, into the forest, out the other side, and into the city. He follows the same sidewalks as always – bustling with people in the daytime, but abandoned during the night. He makes his way to the park, following the winding path to become another shadow like the trees around him. He never skips a night, as if he is called to this path he always takes, this routine he has. It is as if he is as rooted into it as much as the trees are in the park.

It’s quiet here. It’s peaceful. There’s something special to it, to hearing a place that is usually so loud and teeming with activity be silent. To be still and empty, except for him as he strolls through.

He reaches the old cobblestone bridge that stretches over the river that winds through the park. It leads to a pond at the very end that he has learned that ducks like to frequent – on the rare occasion he has ventured out during the day. Despite being mostly immune after so many years, he still does not like the prickle against his skin that sunlight sometimes gives him, or the way his eyes have to strain after being so used to living in the night.

He pauses at the peak of the bridge as he always does. He watches the city’s lights ripple in the water. The street lamps that flank the end corners of the bridge, and the buildings so tall that their light reaches through the park like its own dappled sunlight. He watches the colors bleed together in the dark water, looking as if they are drops of watercolor paint reaching for each other.

He sighs, and he sees just the tail end of his breath in the air in front of him, signaling that colder days are beginning to settle over the city. He wonders how a wisp of fog curls in the air when he sighs if he can’t produce any warmth, if he’s colder than the city’s coldest days. He would think that maybe there is a dying flame of warmth in him if he wasn’t told the opposite so many times over so many years. If he weren’t reminded of how cold his hands are, how being in his hold feels like being stranded in a snowstorm, how even his words tend to be biting – although the physical chill isn’t felt, but the emotions are.

He sighs inwardly, because he doesn’t want to see if he imagined the afterthought of fog fading into the night, and he continues his walk.

After crossing the bridge, he follows the path to the right, in the direction of his home to start his far walk back. “Home” may be a little too kind. Just his manor, perhaps, although when he remembers his best friend living there, and his other friends too, “home” could be one of its descriptions, but at the very bottom of the list.

He is thinking about what he might do when he gets there, if he’ll read or take a nap or find another way to busy himself, so his footsteps falter when he hears something he hasn’t yet encountered during these nightly wanderings.

It wasn’t quite a sigh, nor a hum or a groan, but a mix of the three. He hasn’t crossed paths with any other living things on this walk before (or, he corrects in his head with a wry laugh, any living thing at all, since he cannot be considered one). He hears the sound of shuffling, like the fabric of clothes rubbing together. He follows the noises, and it brings him near the end of the park, to a bench beneath a dark street lamp – the bulb burnt out.

On the wooden bench with its chipping paint and graffiti ink sunken into the planks lies a boy. He is too tall for the length of the bench, but with his legs folded close to his chest, he manages to be small enough to fit. He clutches a tattered backpack to himself the way one might hold a pillow if they were sleeping in a proper bed, and not on a park bench in the far dark corner of a park, where the air is most likely too cold for those who can feel it. That proves to be true by the way the tip of the boy’s nose is dusted in red, and his warm breaths pirouette in front of him with his even breathing.

Taehyung studies his face, because he doesn’t understand how someone can look so peaceful given the circumstances. He can tell by his dirty clothes, the few holes in the fabric of his shoes, and the way he holds his bag to him securely that this most likely is not the first park bench he has found solace in for the night – probably just the one he’s decided to come to before forced to go somewhere else by any of the many reasons that could be the cause.

Taehyung walks closer, his movements completely silent because of the predator he is meant to be. He towers over the sleeping form of the boy, then he crouches down in front of him so they would be eye level if he weren’t sound asleep. When Taehyung sees him up close, his chest does something strange. There is a fleeting feeling, there and gone so fast that he almost thinks he imagined it.

The boy looks young, but Taehyung thinks he probably looks a few years younger asleep than he does awake. Right now, his cheeks are soft and relaxed, and his lips are formed in a pout. Beneath those lips is a beauty mark. Taehyung looks at it. It is several seconds before he looks away to take in the rest of him.

His hair settles above his cheekbones, wavy and tousled, but most likely unintentionally. The breeze appears for a moment and rustles the strands, and it makes the boy sniff like a sleeping puppy. Some of his hair falls across his closed eyes. Taehyung finds that his hands involuntarily twitch, as if they want to reach out and brush it aside.

The boy begins to move. He holds his backpack tighter before relaxing, adjusting his arms to try to fit on the small surface better. Taehyung can hear the beating of his heart, gentle and steady in his state of sleep.

So focused on watching him that his guard faltered for a moment, another appearance of the chilled breeze cups the boy’s scent in its incorporeal hands and offers it to Taehyung, who takes it before being allowed a moment to protest.

He smells like blood, as every living thing does to Taehyung. Some stories out there that find a way to romanticize who he is write that some humans smell horrible, while others smell like a field of blooming flowers, or freshly baked cinnamon rolls from a childhood left behind. Some blood is rejected while others are addictive, when in truth, they all smell delicious and alluring, because they all smell like blood. And when their sharpened teeth sink into the tendons in their neck and their blood floods their mouth, it all tastes wonderful and addictive, because that is who he is.

He knows this to be true, so he thinks that he must be in a romantic mood tonight (despite finding nothing to romanticize within the last several decades, as the wonder of life started to fade more and more like a photograph left out in the sun – something inevitable when having lived so many days), or his nap is needed to find a way to allow his mind a rest, because there is something hidden within the smell of the crimson ocean flowing beneath the boy’s skin. It is so faint that he thinks he must be imagining it. He can’t place what it is, if it’s even there at all.

He doesn’t have time to linger and figure it out, because the first traces of the daybreak have started to appear, the sky slowly lightening to a dark periwinkle. Taehyung wonders what the boy’s eyes look like, but he doesn’t want to startle him by lingering and finding a stranger so close to him when he wakes. Taehyung doesn’t particularly want to walk the rest of the way home under the rays of the unrelenting sun, always a reminder that he is a creature of the night with the way it prickles his skin after trying to cheat his nature and linger in the light.

He is confused when he finds it difficult to stand, and even more difficult to walk away. He doesn’t understand why he keeps glancing over his shoulder. Why he watches the boy until he can’t anymore. Why he wants to turn around to make sure he is still there.

He disappears between the trees to make his way through the forest back home. He doesn’t know why he still keeps scenting the air, holding onto traces of the sleeping boy's blood until he can’t anymore. He doesn’t know why even as his feet take him farther away, why with each passing second of the hours it takes for him to arrive at his manor, he sees a speckled dot beneath pouted lips, round cheeks on a dreaming face, locks of hair his fingers itched to touch.

Chapter Text

Taehyung does not feel pity like the others do.

If he does not feel indifference, then it is disgust. He supposes he has no right to form an opinion other than gratitude, but it will never be that. He watches with a hidden snarl as the human stumbles out of the guest wing of the manor with two healing holes pierced through their neck, expletives being thrown at him until they disappear. It is not rare that it happens, but the misplaced confidence and bravery will always stun him, as they seem to forget who he is.

The fact that his kind exists isn’t very common knowledge, but it isn’t entirely secret either. Obsessive humans have dedicated themselves to finding proof, and it has been from seeking out the rumor of how it feels to be bitten by a vampire. The high that comes from the venom injected with their bite, the euphoria and bliss felt as blood leaves their body. There are a few hidden clubs frequented by vampires looking to feed and humans wanting to get high from it. His days of having to be at those dingy places or find an unsuspecting human have long passed when humans began to show up at the manor and offer themselves up. It is greatly appreciated by his friends who live with him, and they kindly allow humans a burst of euphoria as they drink from them out of pity for their desperation. Taehyung, however–

Jimin sighs when he appears without a sound, although Taehyung could smell him coming before his arrival. With non-living blood flowing through their useless veins, the lack of appeal makes room for their true scents to come through. And, incredulously, Jimin smells like cotton candy, like nights he has been dragged to the fair when it comes to the neighboring town and has seen the lights bleed into the darkness, the scent of greasy food and sticky sweets so strong it almost subdued the scents of the humans enjoying a nostalgic night, not knowing predators were within their midst. Taehyung knows they are not true predators, that their friends would not even hurt a fly, and make it so humans aren’t hurt either when they’re fed from. Still, it is their nature to be as such, and that word has never left him, because it is who he is.

“You know,” Jimin says with the scent of nostalgic nights clinging to him with cotton candy pink hair to match, “the humans are literally feeding us. They’re why we’re alive because they offer themselves to us. You could be grateful and at least make it good for them.”

Taehyung doesn’t bother rolling his eyes; he knows it is woven through his tone anyway. “It is not a selfless act on their behalf,” he replies. “It is not done out of the kindness of their hearts. I will not reward humans for showing up at my home; I should punish them and remind them of their fragility. If they know where I reside, they certainly know who I am, and they should be reminded that their confidence is extraordinarily misplaced. The only reason I spare them is so you and the rest need not venture out into the night to hunt for food.”

“Humans needing a fix come here because the oh so powerful and mighty Kim Taehyung lives here.” Taehyung ungraciously snorts, causing an ascending tick of Jimin’s pillowy lips that match the pink of his hair. “The people willing to face whatever mood you’re in that night shows how desperate they are.”

“I will not reward stupidity,” Taehyung says. “Is there a reason you’ve sought me out? Or was it to have this conversation for the hundredth time?”

“I sought you out,” Jimin lightly mocks, “because there’s a problem.”

Taehyung sighs. “When is there not?”

“Well, given the time to problems ratio, not very often.”

“Well, time works differently when you’ve lived beyond your teenage years.”

“I’m not even considered a teenager anymore!” Jimin whines like he always does when teased. Turned in his twenty-eighth year and living reborn for nearly eighty more, Jimin is beyond his teenage vampire years, but Taehyung will not give it up so quickly because of how fun it is to tease his best friend. “You’re just an old man.” Jimin pokes him in his ribs, giggling when Taehyung flinches away with something embarrassingly close to a whine.

“I’ve surpassed the ‘old man’ descriptor and am simply immortal.” They all are, of course, but he has lived beyond that marker and has stopped having one. Turned when forty-two and alive for many, many more years than that, he knows the semi-youth of a forty-two year old still resides in him somewhere but has been tainted with the tiredness of immortality. Many years with his best friend have reminded him of his younger age, but hasn’t succeeded in feeling anything near youthful. Jimin tells him he just needs more time to bring it out, but time only ever wears him down.

“Anyway, there’s a problem.”

“Perhaps you might arrive at the explanation at some point before my immortality runs out?”

Jimin snorts. “That doesn’t even make sense,” he says. Taehyung doesn’t confide in him on how it could, how the idea has taken up residence in his head within the last handful of decades. He spares him from the hurt it would bring for now. “There must be a fledgling somewhere, because humans are being found bloody in different places. No one has died yet, but we’re a few more of them away from the police finding out.”

Taehyung sighs. “And why is this brought to me?” he asks. “You and the others are more than capable of handling it, as you do every time a problem arises. A problem arising isn’t even our mess to handle; who cares if humans have a mess to deal with? We will continue to survive, even if found out.”

Jimin shrugs. “Thought you might like something to do.”

Taehyung blinks at him. “I have many things to do that do not include dealing with newborns – something you know I despise. You are aware that the conclusion of this outing will end in a dead newborn, because I do not have the patience for anything else.”

“Well, that’s kinda the hope…” Jimin says, causing Taehyung to raise an eyebrow. “We’ve looked into the fledgling, and they have a human criminal record. Lots and lots of assaults, pretty much all of the kinds. Seems like they found a way to be turned to be able to overpower people better.” Definitely someone who should not be given the features of being turned.

Taehyung stands and smooths down his trousers. “I agree with your judgment, but I do not appreciate the implication behind being called upon to be a killer. The death of newborns is often a byproduct of my lack of patience, not something I seek out. I do not find joy in ending a life, in any way. Do not come to me with the hope that I will spring into action with happiness. If my assistance is required, I will be at your aid, but the others can deal with it, as that is the job they have decided for themselves. Have a good night.”

“Tae, that’s not what I–I wasn’t–” Taehyung tunes out the rest of his fumbling when he leaves the room.

Unbidden, a thought prickles at the back of Taehyung’s mind as he walks through the manor back to his living quarters. His footsteps falter for a moment with confusion at its arrival.

He thinks of a sleeping form, curled up on a withering park bench. City parks at night are not often a place of good intentions, and the vulnerability and unawareness of sleep is an invitation to be the subject. He doesn’t know where in the city the newborn is wreaking havoc, and there have always been human threats to anyone out late at night. He has never concerned himself with the business of humans, and he will not start now. There is no meaning behind a memory appearing in his tired head; he takes it as proof that his nap is becoming a necessity.

He enters his bedroom, and he pulls the burgundy curtains in front of the many large windows closed before the sunlight can enter. He switches off the tiffany lamp on the side table in the sitting area of the room, shrouding the space in darkness. He enters his walk-in closet and changes out of his day – or, well, night, really – clothes into something to sleep in. He catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror, and it sometimes scares him how he can see his tiredness from the outside. He has lines etched into the skin beside his eyes, and more wrinkles gently embedded into his forehead. Neither kind is very deep or noticeable, unlike the grey in his hair. Most of it is sprinkled into the thick black locks, but there is one patch in front of his ear that looks as if he bleached a streak into his hair and pulled the color from it. It isn’t the manifestations of older age that makes him look so tired though. It is the lack of anything in his eyes. The emptiness. The way he can look at his reflection, and it is barely as if anything is looking back at him. It is like there is nothing there at all. There is nothing to him at all.

It has not always been this way. And he does not remember why it is this way now. But it has been this way for a long, long time. He is not sure if he can withstand it much longer.

He walks out to his bedroom again and climbs into his bed, the red silk sheets sliding against his skin. He pulls the velvet duvet over himself and looks up at the curtains that hang from the four posters of his canopy bed. Centuries of life have resulted in mastering the discipline of calling upon sleep when it is not needed to function, so when his eyes close, it is only seconds before his mind blissfully rests.

Within those seconds though, just as perplexing and unbidden as before, a human is painted behind his eyelids, pouted lips, a mystifying spot just beneath them. He sleeps.

Chapter Text

Butlers and assistants and different kinds of hired staff would be nice to have to help a manor filled with six people run smoothly, but it has never been a viable option for many reasons. The manor is not accessible to anyone but them (or humans desperate enough to make the two-hour trek through the forest with no path or trail to guide them). There are not any roads or sidewalks that lead here, and he thinks that very few would like to be so isolated without a way to make an escape. Taehyung is also not very fond of the thought of humans living among them, so he and the other residents of his manor tend to carry out the mundane errands and tasks needed to run a home inhabited by many. Seokjin or Yoongi handle any affairs involving feeding those who live here. More important professional engagements are attended by the ever diplomatic Namjoon, and Jimin and Hoseok tend to tag along for anything.

Anything Taehyung might need can be handled by others, but some things he prefers to do himself. The main one being: going to the bookstore.

Immortality has proven to be quite long, with more time he once could not fathom being able to fill. It has led to him choosing for his lot in life to be reading as many books as he can. Not needing to sleep and not needing to have many responsibilities makes reading through a bookstore not an unattainable goal, as he tends to read a book a day, sometimes more. And by the time he has reached the end of the shelves, many more have been published. His library at the manor has gone through countless expansions, as decades of books are placed there once he’s made his way through them. He has been meaning to go through what he has and pull those that he did not find much joy or merit in, so perhaps he will finally do so when he returns.

Going to the bookstore, however, requires venturing into the city in the daylight during its open hours. This is less of a problem in the colder months because he can cover more of his skin in pants and long jackets without standing out strangely as he does in the summer. Still, the way the light pinches his cheeks isn’t very pleasant, but it is much more tolerable than the burns he would be faced with a century before.

An unpleasant byproduct of coming to the city during the lighter hours, however, is the stares he receives. They weren’t uncommon before he was who he is now, because despite being so long ago, many parts of his past are always painfully easy to recall. He has never been a stranger to being looked at by others, but being turned into a vampire made his features even more striking. Nothing changed, really; he looks like the forty-two year old he did ages ago. The same sharp eyes, the same thick eyebrows, the same natural downturn of his lips. His hair and his style used to evolve with the times before he found it tiresome to try to adapt, and he stuck with what felt most like himself. Black and grey hair that falls in tousled waves, showing a slight peek of his forehead, but with careless bangs falling mostly in his eyes – making him look mysterious and sultry, as Jimin always says.

His style has remained the same too, in different versions of what he is wearing now. A long pea coat that follows slightly behind him like a cape when he walks through the city streets, trying to escape the eyes of passersby. It is a camel brown color, paired with dark brown trousers that have a subtle plaid pattern if anyone were close enough, and a dark burnt orange turtleneck. He is aware he looks good without the vampirism as a factor, so when the two are paired together, he catches almost everyone’s eye.

He arrives at his usual bookstore, a quiet, tucked away place that could easily be overlooked. It is off the skyscraper-crowded streets, on a more hidden avenue with a cozy brownstone exterior. Small, contained trees line the street in front of every other building, their leaves the colors of the fall season. He climbs the few steps up to the door of the bookstore and opens it with its usual jingle of a bell announcing his arrival and giving him an unneeded respite from the cold autumn day outside.

He’s frequented many bookstores in the city, but he has found that this one is his favorite. It’s cozy, yes, and it has a great selection, but he quite enjoys his interactions with the shopkeeper, which is almost a nonexistent occurrence in his life.

The aging man behind the counter looks up at the sound of the door, and the kind smile on his face brings a look loosely similar to Taehyung’s face too. “Taehyung-ssi!” Hajoon says. “It’s been a while!”

Taehyung chuckles. “It has been three days.”

“I’m used to seeing you every other day. You had me worried.”

Taehyung chuckles, the kindness making him feel human for a moment. “There is no need to worry about me,” he assures him.

He settles on the other side of the front desk to make their usual few minutes of small talk. Even from the beginning, it is something he’s never minded. The man is kind in a way that makes Taehyung want to linger rather than slip away. He appears to be in his sixties or so, with fully white hair and a charmingly aged face. There are deep lines beside his lips from a lifetime spent smiling and greeting people so warmly, just like he does to the man in front of him. Taehyung has noticed before that he, too, has those similar marks around his mouth. They are nowhere near as deep, but the faint suggestion of them makes him wonder how there was ever a time for them to have come around.

They talk about the weather outside, about how business is proceeding. New book releases he has just put out on the front tables, and others he wants Taehyung to keep an eye out for, as if he does not read every single book simply because it is there. Taehyung asks about his family, and is not asked in return, because Hajoon learned that there is nothing to ask about. After a few more minutes of needlessly catching up, Taehyung wanders deeper into the bookstore.

It’s quite an airy, open space. Big front windows bring in a flood of light – something that doesn’t bother him much when he isn’t directly under the sun outside. It is all light wood in the store rather than anything moody or dark like he usually prefers, and it pairs nicely with the sunlight and each season to behold outside of the big windows.

The bookstore is neatly organized, which he appreciates, because he feels anxious in bookstores with stacks piling up on the floors and rows deep on shelves that make it impossible to sort through. Here, everything is clean and open and in its place. Soft piano music plays from hidden speakers and the scent of flowers from their vases on the front tables lazily drifts through the air. It’s peaceful. The owner isn’t smothering, and he’s unmoved by Taehyung’s beauty for one reason or another. Taehyung enjoys his time here, and he’s happy to be able to support the man.

He takes his time wandering through the shop. He made his way through reading the store a couple of months ago, followed by reading the new releases displayed on the front tables. Now his visits have been spent looking through the shelves, trying to spot any titles he hasn’t read in the overwhelming mix of the ones he has.

He finds a few here and there, pleased to discover that their summaries sound interesting to him. He’s mostly stopped reading the back covers to get a peek of their plots because he takes what he can get at this point, but he’s more often than not pleasantly surprised, more or less.

Around a half hour later with five books in hand that will last him the next two days at most, he returns to the front desk to pay. It is the only place in the store that allows itself to get freely messy. Several books are piled up that Hajoon reads his way through when sitting in his shop for hours each day. Unorganized paperwork is strewn about, and there is often an array of half-eaten snacks as well – all so different from the clean peacefulness of the shop itself.

Hajoon always insists on giving him a discount for being a regular, but Taehyung has learned to calculate the true total of his hauls and gives him that amount instead, leaving him with cash on the counter that Hajoon is unable to hand back by the time Taehyung is gone. It is their tradition at this point, and Taehyung walks out of the shop with a tote bag full of books.

The sun has begun to set, painting the grey city sky with oranges and reds, but the colors are weak and muted as they strain to break free from the clouds blanketing them. He tends to take a different way home when he goes to the bookstore, but before he realizes it, he finds that his steps have brought him to the park on the other end of the city – the place he strolls through when he doesn’t have a destination and is simply walking to look around him.

By the time he steps within the park’s bounds, night has fallen. The street lamp above him flickers on, helping guide his way even though he can see as easily without it.

He takes the same path as always, but he doesn’t linger over the bridge like always; he hurries over instead. He does not know why he’s hastening, but his steps get quicker and quicker. It is as if he is no longer meandering like he has always done on his nightly walk that he has taken for decades; there is now a destination.

His footsteps finally slow when a familiar bench comes into view. He is not out of breath, nor is his heart rate racing, because he doesn’t have either. But he could swear his non-beating heart calms when he finds what he was searching for.

It is as if he was brought back to a couple of nights ago. The same boy, the same clothes, the same curled up position on the bench.

As Taehyung walks closer, though, he sees a difference. There is a small knick on his cheek, a short cut that’s scabbed over. His skin, too, is slightly different – dusty, almost, as if it were a result of being outside without washing the day off. Not anything drastic, but visible because of Taehyung’s sharp senses (or maybe because of how close he is to his face right now).

Being so close, and being so aware, also makes Taehyung hear the rattling sound the boy’s stomach makes in his sleep. Judging by his cheeks that are the slightest bit less round than before, Taehyung is sure that his stomach is flatter than it should be.

The city has resources for those who are struggling, those who wander without a place to call their own. Shelters have food and showers and beds to lay on, rather than park benches in the cold. Taehyung knows those only allow for a certain number of stays though, and the boy could have used all of his and is left to fend for himself.

More lucid than he would like to claim, Taehyung pulls one of his books out of his bag, and his wallet out of his pocket. He’s never adapted to the way of banks (or most modern things, which Jimin teases him for). He doesn’t trust an institution with the fortune he’s accumulated across his long life, and cash has never been a hassle to pay with. So he takes the rest of his large sum of cash from his wallet and tucks it between the pages of a book like a bookmark. Carefully and slowly, he sets the book on the bench where it won’t be missed by the boy when he wakes, and hopefully won’t be taken by anybody who passes him.

Then he thinks that maybe… maybe he should linger, just to be sure. Just until daybreak. It is his first time doing something strange like this, and he doesn’t want the effort to be fruitless.

Just in case the boy wakes, Taehyung doesn’t sit right in front of him like he would like to. Instead he crosses the path to a tree no more than twenty feet away, and he sits with his back to the trunk, hidden in the shadows.

He pulls a book from his bag, because the lack of light doesn’t hinder his ability to see, which is why he can spot the boy’s beauty mark even from here.

He opens the cover of his book, but he doesn’t make it past the dedication. It sits forgotten in his lap as he watches the boy sleep. He is studying his hands, the way his knuckles are slightly wider than the rest of his fingers, and how his grip on his backpack has loosened in his sleep, so Taehyung is once again unprepared for his scent to be carried with the breeze, right to him.

He breathes him in, allowing the scent of his blood to invade his nose. He feels the points of his teeth poke into his lips. It has been a couple of days since he last fed, and he shouldn’t have ventured out amongst humans with his thirst not fully sated. He has been alive for many years and is nowhere close to the rabid blood craze those younger than him have, but sometimes he cannot fight his nature, and this boy… his blood… He did not hallucinate it like he told himself he did. There is more to it than what he smells in everybody else. Not a sweetness exactly, but a depth perhaps. A richness. It wraps around him in a way a scent never has, not that he can recall. The feeling the scent of it brings catches him off guard so much that he feels the points of his teeth round out to their smooth, natural curve before he was turned. The scent comes to him again because the autumn breeze rarely ceases, and it is as if a blanket were draped over his cold form. He doesn’t understand.

The boy somehow doesn’t move in his sleep. Taehyung is certain he can’t be comfortable, and it brings a strange pang of discomfort thinking of what the boy must experience to bring upon such a deep sleep in somewhere so unideal.

The sun had just set when he arrived at the park, and it feels as though the next time he blinks, it is beginning to peek through the clouds. He hasn’t moved from this spot, not a centimeter. He sat as still as a statue, watching the boy sleep. He caught every sniffle, every twitch of his eyebrows, every rustle of his hair in the wind that gave him more of his scent that he tried so hard not to breathe in but never succeeded.

When the sun wakes some more, Taehyung stands. He puts his forgotten book in his bag. He approaches the sleeping boy again to make sure the book he placed beside him is still securely in place.

Before he realizes what he is doing, his hand reaches out. Just before he can feel his tresses of hair, to discover if it is still as silky as it looks despite living outside, he stops. He lets his hand fall back to his side, and he walks away. It is with more difficulty than it took before.

Chapter Text

Taehyung does not like humans. He doesn’t like vampires either, and he is certain he would not like anything else that may be out there.

But he especially doesn’t like humans.

He doesn’t like the way they meddle in his affairs without truly understanding what they’re getting into. He doesn’t like their self-inflicted problems or their dramatics. He doesn’t like what he has observed over centuries, seeing greed and misplaced pride. He would choose to never interact with them if his life weren’t dependent upon it.

He especially does not like their confidence and egos. How some of them leave the room shouting insults at him for not giving them what they came for as he fed from them.

He is in a particularly irritable mood tonight, and this human is bolder than others. Taehyung could tell immediately by the way he sauntered in, his shirt already unbuttoned as he climbed into his lap without a word or an indication of permission.

Taehyung allowed it. He knew he would be taking more from him than he usually does to others, because he has been neglecting himself. He sunk his teeth into the man’s neck, pushing out just enough venom to dull the pain, but nothing more.

He made quick work of sucking from his neck, because it is only ever a matter of seconds before the humans realize they don’t feel anything else than the initial burst – none of the euphoria and bliss they bravely show up to his manor for. He takes big gulps of his blood, barely tasting any of it because he does not know when it was that he last felt pleasure from feeding. He does it merely to sustain himself, and even then, his desire for that has been trickling from him for so long that there is barely anything left.

Luckily, Taehyung had enough from him before the human angrily got off his lap. The man staggers back with a look of disgust and rage on his face. He spews insults at him, calling him names he has never heard before amongst expletives he is not familiar with either. The man yells until he is red in the face.

“I hope no other people come here and you have to starve, you fucking–”

Taehyung has heard enough. His anger snaps when the blood has settled into his system and restored some of his depleted energy.

He has been patient. Too kind. Before the man can blink, he is against the wall with Taehyung’s hand squeezing his throat. Taehyung is sure his eyes are red from the new blood flowing through him, the hand around the man’s throat cold like ice. His voice is low and menacing. “I think you are forgetting yourself, little human,” he says. He looks from the man’s terrified eyes, down to his neck that still bleeds from the open wounds there. “Just an easy flick of the wrist, and your throat would be ripped from your neck.” He squeezes tighter to watch the panic set in the human’s face even stronger. “Or,” he leans in and takes a deep inhale, “I could drain you dry. Leave your fragile little body to collapse. Then I wouldn’t have to starve like you said, would I?”

Only once the man begins to shake from either fear or lack of air does Taehyung drop him, allowing him to sink into his knees as he coughs and sputters. Taehyung smooths out his clothes and says, uncaring, “You may stay here to recover, but I would advise to not allow me to see you again.” He leaves the room.

He would feel bad that maybe he ruined this arrangement for his friends, but neither threats nor violence could keep the humans from coming. If they had, humans would have stopped showing up long, long ago.

Before Taehyung can retire to his living quarters in peace, a gust of wind announces Jimin’s sudden arrival beside him. “We’re going to have guests soon.”

“Wonderful,” Taehyung mutters. “And who might it be this time? And do you recall the many times I have told you and the others that my home is not a training facility?”

“If you learned how to work a cellphone, you could respond to people and say that instead of leaving it up to softhearted Joonie.”

“Or, my friends who should have my best interests at heart, as I do all of you, should know how to handle my correspondences accordingly.”

Jimin shrugs as they arrive at his room and he plops down onto his bed as if it is his right to be there. And it is; Jimin belongs everywhere, especially where Taehyung is concerned.

Taehyung is possibly one of the oldest vampires that is still around, at least in this part of the world. The idea of no longer being the oldest, though, is one that has taken root in his mind more and more as of late. The seed was planted so long ago, and now it feels more like an inevitability he is coming closer to rather than an idea.

But with his age comes power and prestige, and, usually, fear. He is well known by many vampires, and most humans who know of vampires’ existence. Not because he is noble or noteworthy, but just because he is there. But because of those things, he is (usually) treated with respect. He is also met with unease, and often cowered to. He would think it silly and dramatic, but his actions do elicit such a response, and it is better to be feared than to be bothered.

And then arrived Jimin. Jimin who knew all about who he is, and couldn't care less. The manor housed most of the others long before Jimin’s arrival, and even as they maintained a polite relationship, the others residing here kept a respectful, tense distance from him. Jimin didn’t spare a second thought before crossing that distance.

Taehyung doesn’t know why, and he doesn’t know why he allowed it. Nor does he know why, from that very first day, it felt as if their immortality existed for the sole reason to cross decades to find each other. It felt, from the very first day they met, like his life finally had somewhat of a purpose that he lost somewhere long ago: to be Jimin’s friend. His best friend, Jimin would pipe in and say.

Jimin does not look like he fits in Taehyung’s bedroom, or much of the manor as a whole. All of the dark wood, the gothic architecture, the rich colors and old art is such a contrast to Jimin’s soft pink hair, the light colors of his clothes, the brightness of his smile. But Jimin fits in everywhere he goes, as if the world and their surroundings shift and change to fit him, because Jimin is not going to change himself to suit anyone else. And he should not, because Jimin is perfect as he is. Almost as opposite to Taehyung as one could be, full of qualities that would drive Taehyung mad in anyone else, and he is perfect.

Jimin burrows himself under the covers and makes grabby hands for Taehyung to join him. As soon as he does, Jimin latches onto him. “No, Jimin-ah, you know I’m cold. I–” Taehyung tries to protest.

“Shush,” Jimin says. “Let me cuddle with my best friend.”

Taehyung allows it, even though he knows within the next few minutes, if he would be so lucky to have that long, the temperature of his centuries-dead body will be too much to bear for Jimin. Jimin has not gone as cold as he has. Even Namjoon, who is the closest to his age out of all of the others, has not gone nearly as cold, and the temperature of each other is barely felt among themselves to begin with. But they are not Taehyung, who feels as if his body were left for dead but never decayed. He feels as cold to himself too, because nothing is able to make him feel anything but the same cold he’s felt for so many long years.

“Tell me about this visitor,” he sighs.

“You’re not going to like it.”

“I am already aware of that, regardless of the answer. But I suspect it must be from Baekhyun’s group.”

“Yep.”

Taehyung sighs again, any good feelings from being with Jimin souring. “Why? And why does he seem to have a newborn every other month?”

Jimin snorts. “He hasn’t been here in over a year.” Same thing to Taehyung, but he doesn’t say that. “And,” Jimin shrugs, “I dunno. Probably to see you.”

It’s half-teasing, but it’s honestly what Taehyung suspected. The way Baekhyun tries to leach onto Taehyung anytime he’s here, it shows that his intentions lie with himself and not the newborns who keep appearing in his possession.

“My home is not a newborn training facility,” Taehyung says again. Traces of what happened with the human earlier seem to be sticking to him still, because he finds that he is angry before he can try to simmer it. And before he realizes, he is out of bed and in another area of the manor, where Namjoon is. Seokjin is there as well, of course, never too far from his mate.

They are in Namjoon’s study, which is as chaotic and passionate and warm as the man himself. Papers and books and other manifestations of his devotion to life are scattered and piled up on every surface. Shelves are overflowing with some bowed under the weight of what is on them, and art and photographs cover the walls – many frames crooked, but straightening them would almost look out of place in the environment they are in.

Namjoon sits at his desk, gathering a stack of papers there. His shaved head has recently been bleached blonde, as he always follows the whims of their younger friends and easily folded under Jimin’s pressure when dyeing his own hair. He is dressed simply in casual lounging clothes, looking nothing like the old vampire he really is. His age is shown only through the look in his knowing eyes and his vocabulary that never stayed fully up-to-date with the changing times, like Taehyung’s formal way of speaking that has clung to him as well.

Seokjin is sitting across from him, lounging comfortably in his chair as he looks down at his cellular phone. His hair is long and fluffy, a stark contrast to Namjoon’s buzzcut, and he’s quietly humming to himself or swearing under his breath at the game he seems to be playing.

Namjoon looks up at the sound of him appearing. He stops what he is doing.

“This is my home,” Taehyung says, his words seething with no introduction to them. He is just so tired of it all. Of the way others treat him with such familiarity. How they come into his home and speak to him as if they should be able to. At the way the others who live here do not seem to remember that this is Taehyung’s home that they are merely living in. He is just so tired of it all. “I allow you to stay here, in my home. You do not get to decide who may come and go. You do not get to make the decision that a newborn can invade the place, that his keepers are welcome here, in somewhere that does not belong to you.” He barrels closer to Namjoon. Seokjin shoots out of his chair and attempts to intercept. Taehyung turns to him, and he can feel the strain in his face – when his true anger comes out, and the veins surrounding his eyes turn black to match the color of his irises. “Do not touch me.” Seokjin stumbles back, running into the edge of Namjoon’s desk.

He addresses the entire room now, where everyone else has gathered when they sensed danger. Jimin, Yoongi, and Hoseok are standing together as they always are, while Seokjin has made his way behind Namjoon – who doesn’t look near the level of fear as the others do, as he should be.

“It seems,” Taehyung says, hands shaking with anger, “that everybody has forgotten who I am.” He remembers the human who yelled at him so boldly, the others before them who didn’t hesitate to tell him their thoughts. And now this, from those who do know him. “I would urge you all to remember whose home you are allowed to live in, and act accordingly. With centuries behind me and the intention to not live any more,” he sees Jimin’s lips parting in shock at the words more than all of the others he has spoken, tears springing to his eyes that Taehyung disregards, “I do not have anything to lose, and I will not hesitate to respond to disrespect in the manner one would expect from Kim Taehyung. I do not care who you are. You should care who I am.”

And with that, he leaves the room.

– ☾ –

Taehyung doesn’t understand.

He gave the boy enough money to rent a hotel room for at least a week, with enough left over for hearty meals and maybe some new clothes.

But here the boy lies on the same decaying park bench, in the same dirty clothes, with the same aching stomach that Taehyung can hear.

Taehyung is pretty certain that no one took the book he left for him. He left at sunrise, and he’s sure the boy woke not long after that and saw it. Taehyung is certain he gave him more than enough needed for a week of basic necessities. So he doesn’t understand why he’s here.

Selfishly, though, he’s glad he is. He did not realize until he’d arrived that this is why he set out on a walk. Even as he had his hand around a human’s throat, as he threatened his friends, as he stormed out of the manor, the sleeping boy lingered along the edges of each thought. He does not know why, and he is not hastening to figure it out. He does not know why a simple sleeping human has caught his attention. Perhaps it is because he looks so pitiful curled up on this park bench, but he knows if it is anything, it is because of how beautiful he looks instead. How peaceful. How sweet.

Taehyung can move quickly if it is required. He can hear if the boy were to wake even before he opened his eyes. He can be out of his sight in time. So he sits on the grass right in front of the bench, close enough to feel his breath against his skin if he were to lean any closer.

And he does. His scent is so alluring, has been in his head since he first smelled it. He only experienced it whenever the wind would bring it to him, but now he is right here, and he will allow himself to be indulgent just this once. He tells himself it is to figure out why this sleeping boy smells so… so different, even though he knows it is because he just wants to experience it again. He leans in further and takes a deep, greedy inhale of his scent. The park is silent except for the sound of Taehyung breathing in, while the boy breathes out, unaware of what is happening as he sleeps. Not even the leaves rustle; all is quiet, except for him. He thinks for a moment that the sound building low and deep in his throat is a growl. He wonders if he should leave. The scent of blood is so close to him, so easy to retrieve, and it is right here after the day he has had and the storming thoughts it brought about.

But as he breathes out and the scent returns to a sleeping state just like the boy himself, Taehyung realizes it is not a growl, but a hum – almost like the uncontrollable purr of a content cat.

He carefully rests his bent elbow on the bench, right in the space between the boy’s bent knees and his chest. The boy’s arms pillow his head this time. His hands rest together, fingers relaxed. Taehyung notices another beauty mark, on his pinky.

He rests his head against his own hand, studying the boy. He is still a painter, he supposes, even if he cannot remember when he last picked up a brush, or why he stopped at all. Why the mere thought of doing so brings about such a desperate feeling that he shuts away the moment it appears. Even if he no longer paints, he is still a painter, and he looks at the boy as one. He studies him as if he is a muse he is going to recreate. His curves, the colors, the way the lights and shadows caress him.

Taehyung’s eyes follow along the boy’s curves. The roundness of his nose, and that of his Cupid’s bow. His cheeks, that are beginning to curve in more than they were the first time Taehyung found him.

He can see the boy’s colors, even in the dead of night, even with the moonlight hidden behind autumn clouds. His lips, such a delicate shade of red. Hair as black as the sky, skin a shade or two lighter than his own. A dusting of pink atop the tip of his nose, where Taehyung spots another beauty mark, this one more subtle than the others he’s found.

No light caresses him right now, only shadows. But the shadows – always so looming, some nights menacing – do so lovingly. Taehyung has never seen something that looks so beautiful in darkness. He fears what he might look like in the sun if it is this way in the unkind night.

Taehyung has lived for a very long time. He has lived for centuries, so many days that he wouldn’t have been able to keep count even if he did not have periods of darkness to alleviate him of the burden of living. He has seen many things, and even more people – fragile, ephemeral humans and beguiling vampires transformed to appeal more to anyone’s eye. He has seen beauty, and he has been moved by it.

But never like this. He has never found a human so enchanting, or anyone for that matter. He has never seen something so difficult to look away from. He has only ever seen him asleep, and from this lying angle, and he shudders to think of what he might look like when his eyes open. Their color, their shape, if they look at the world in admiration, or curiosity, or with the fear Taehyung assumes he carries with him from the life he appears to lead. He wonders about the way his eyelashes might flutter when he blinks, or if he can hold others’ gaze. He wonders if maybe if their eyes meet, he might figure out why a human has captured his attention so effortlessly.

He wonders and wonders and does not understand.

He does understand that he cannot be here, close enough to touch, when the boy wakes. Still, he takes his time to unfold himself from leaning against the bench, then takes even longer to stand up again with grass and dirt clinging to his clothes.

He reaches into his coat pocket and opens his wallet. He takes the cash he already replaced from the night he gave it away. He doesn’t count how much it is, just knows that it should be enough for whatever the boy may need. He carefully slips it into the outer pocket of the boy’s backpack. His movements are so careful and calculated because of his nature that the boy doesn’t even stir.

Taehyung takes a step back. He takes another. He pauses without meaning to, as if he is being asked for time to adjust to the distance before even more of it is placed between them. He steps onto the sidewalk, and he lingers again. He watches him sleep. It is a chilly early-autumn night, but the boy somehow looks so peaceful even with rose-tinted skin.

Taehyung hopes he will use the money to get himself a hotel and find a safe and comfortable rest there. It would not be very difficult to track him down, he doesn’t think, and he would happily do so so he could pay for his room indefinitely, even if it means being unable to spend another night watching him sleep.

He wonders again what he must look like when he is awake, when his eyes blink open at the start of the morning. He wonders about the way his eyebrows move when he speaks. He wonders if there are shades in his hair other than the black it appears to be when the sun shines through the strands. He wonders what he looks like in the sunlight even when he has not woken yet, but he doesn’t stay to see.

Chapter Text

Taehyung doesn’t understand why he feels restless.

He does not experience boredom, nor anxiety, or any emotion or feeling similar to them. He has outbursts of anger and moments of despair that sometimes rush over him, appearing out of thin air, but both tend to leave as suddenly as they came. Outside of the two, he finds that he is generally even-keeled. He knows it is because his body is a vacant room and he is empty inside, save for the moments he is filled to overflowing, so to experience an emotion that is new and unfamiliar is perplexing.

He has been pacing around his private living quarters for the better part of an hour. When he was sure he permanently altered the fiber pattern of the rug in his bedroom, he moved along to the library, then his office, and the rest of his wing of the manor that is forbidden to the others (save for Jimin, who has always unabashedly considered himself to have full access to anything related to the old, unpredictable vampire). He tried completing chores here and there, such as organizing his books or going through his correspondences, but it all proved inefficient to his body and nervous system’s much preferred pacing.

Perhaps a walk outside would be more soothing. The sun has set with the moon high in the black sky, so he dresses in his usual trench coat and his beloved worn-in boots and steps out into the night.

His bedroom has a set of French doors that lead out onto a veranda that overlooks the manor’s beautifully manicured gardens. Wisteria and lavender sigh into the night, on their very last breath as the season’s chill will lead into a nightly frost. Soon they will be replaced by cold-weather flowers that will bring a touch of color to the impending white of the winter season. But for now, he walks through the flowers – admiring some of the rarities featured, such as middlemist red camellia and lily of the valley.

He steps out of the bounds of the garden and into the forest that hides his manor. There does not exist a road or a path to his home, so the humans who find it in them to brave their fate arrive to it by walking through the dense forest, wandering and wandering until some are lucky enough to come out the other side.

After a long lifetime of navigating the woods, he would be able to make his way through even if he did not have his heightened senses. And with each step over the frosted moss and fallen twigs, his restlessness settles just a touch. By the time he’s out of the forest an hour or two later and on his way toward the city to follow his usual walking route, he feels much calmer. And the relief he feels is quite odd, considering he doesn’t often feel ill enough to experience relief when it goes away. He’s uncertain about what it is that is putting him at ease, but he follows the path to see where it leads him.

Maybe he knew.

Maybe he was fooling himself.

Maybe he has grown so used to this gentle urgency that has sent him out into the night to wander aimlessly that a less gentle urging brings about a desire to deny that it is there.

Maybe he does not want to find the words to explain, even to himself, why it is that a human has gained his… infatuation.

He tells himself that it’s mere curiosity that keeps bringing him to this same boy, sound asleep on his park bench, and he continues to return to try to find an answer. But that explanation is torn up into tiny shreds and pieces when something takes its place as he gets closer.

The boy is still there, but, somehow, with less.

His backpack that is usually hugged protectively to his chest is gone. As is the sweatshirt he always wears, so he is now sporting only a long-sleeved shirt that has been worn beneath it. When Taehyung looks away from his change in attire to his face, he notices that his lip is split, and there’s a forming mark on his cheek – something red that he’s sure will soon fade into purple and blue like a hideous flower that blooms unsought at night.

Taehyung crouches down and leans in to get a better look, even though he could see crystal clear from across the park. The boy’s pouted lips now pout no longer from sleep, but from the swelling of an injury not fully scabbed over. His cheek, usually dusted with pink from the cold night, burns red. Taehyung does as well.

It is not difficult to imagine what happened. He holds himself back from leaning in closer to smell the boy, from seeing if the scent of someone’s knuckles still linger on his cheek. He would track the person down if it didn’t mean he’d be so close to the blood scabbed over on his lip. He may have disciplined self-control, but the drying blood, and how with any movement the cut would most likely open again, teases awfully close to the edge of his restraint.

So instead, he straightens back up. He crosses the city in a matter of seconds, arriving at one of the department stores on the outskirts that he knows does not close. He blinks against the sudden fluorescent LED lighting of the store and flinches at the way his boots squeak against the reflective waxy linoleum. It has been a long while since he has been to a store other than his bookshop, and he is so used to the solitude and quiet of the night.

He plucks a basket from beside the door, and he makes his way through the store, erring on the edge of suspicion from others with the speed at which he’s moving. He tries to slow down to a normal human pace, but he cares more about his task and, strangely, this human than he does about remaining undetected at the moment.

He realizes it must be decades since he has been to a store such as this. Hidden speakers now play music that sounds more like noise than something comforting to him, and paired with the sounds of himself shopping in an empty store makes him feel out of place. Unfamiliar products in shiny, unnecessary packaging line endless shelves. He does not know the use of many things he sees, and he does not like how much of everything there is. He wants to be back outside in the comfort of the darkness, so he does not linger more than he needs to.

It is only a handful of minutes later that he exits the store, fading back into the one place he belongs as the darkness softens his edges and conceals him again. He crumples up the receipt that the store clerk wrote his phone number on the back of and throws it into the overflowing trash bin he passes.

Faster than one could fathom, he arrives back at the vast park. He keeps his distance so as to not wake the boy with the sounds he makes. Lingering at the cobblestone bridge across the way, he empties the crinkling plastic bag but keeps the boy in his view as he works. He leaves the tags and packaging on the products so the boy can hopefully be assured that nothing isn’t as it seems and he doesn’t need to be suspicious, and he begins packing everything into the new backpack he bought.

He rolls up the fleece blanket – black so he does not stand out too much when he sleeps. It is smaller and thinner than he would like to give him, but it needs to fit in the bag and leave room for other things. Such as an array of toiletry and sanitation products, a new, heavy sweatshirt, snacks and water, a rather obscene number of gift cards for stores and fast food restaurants, a considerable amount of cash, and other various items that could be of use to him and the lifestyle he leads.

Taehyung deliberates on leaving a note, not knowing if it would calm the boy or unsettle him, but he chooses to do it out of necessity. So that it will be the first thing the boy sees when unzipping the backpack, Taehyung writes:

If there is anything more you desire or need, please write it down and leave it on the bench. I will fetch it for you.

He knows that it is probably not very reassuring to hear, considering many things about all of this imply that he is being watched, but he hopes that what may be unsettling is overpowered by receiving what he needs.

Carefully, Taehyung approaches the boy again. It feels more like he is being pulled to him than simply walking to him. It is as if his non-beating heart settles with every step closer. Taehyung could almost convince himself that the darkening spot on his cheek is simply a shadow, but there is no source of light beneath the burnt out street lamp to be able to cast a shadow onto him. There is only darkness. Taehyung feels it deepening inside of him too at the thought of what brought this all about.

He sets the backpack in front of the boy. He places it on the ground, leaning against the bench so he’ll see it when he wakes.

He almost crouches down again. He almost leans in closer to study him. To smell him. He almost lingers and stays until the sunrise, watching the boy as he sleeps just to think about it on the walk home with confusion, then admiration, then unease that will turn into restlessness until he finds him again.

But before he can crouch down to his lying height, he smells something. He sighs, and he quickly leaves the boy so that he isn’t found here, or so the boy isn’t found by others. As he walks away, he finds himself looking over his shoulder again and again. He lays curled up there in the darkness, staying that way with every step farther away, so vulnerable and open without Taehyung’s protection. He almost turns and goes back, but he continues forward.

Even though Hoseok ties Jimin in the spot of the most altruistic vampire that has ever been turned, he doesn’t want to have to explain… whatever this is to anyone, when he avoids doing it to himself.

He goes to the spot he always pauses at, at the top of the bridge that reaches over the river that cuts through the park. He looks down at the water, so still that it only moves with the blow of the wind. He stands there, watching the city lights twinkle like their own stars until the space beside him is filled by his friend.

Despite the short amount of time he has known Hoseok, he has become one of his closest friends. He met him only thirty years ago, not even yet a blink in the long span of his life. He met Hoseok when he was turned only thirty years ago, left to bleed out after an attack (by an attacker who was swiftly taken care of by Taehyung), and brought to the manor seeking out Namjoon’s aid.

Taehyung is generally not in the business of taking in new vampires, or any vampires at all, despite his manor being full of them. For one reason or another, they end up there, and before Taehyung knows it, he has a new housemate. Hoseok appeared on his doorstep after his attack, and after learning to exist beyond his newborn years, he decided to stay because he didn’t really have anywhere else he wanted to go. Hoseok has never faltered in always showing his appreciation and trying to earn his keep (despite Taehyung telling him that that is not necessary, because he isn’t always cruel). And he seems to be doing that now – trying to pacify him to keep the manor peaceful. Or maybe he is just here to be a good friend.

Neither of them say anything. Taehyung hears the wind whishing through the half-barren trees. It brings with it the scents of the city – so many different kinds that it blends together into one unless he picks it all apart. The branches of the trees swaying in the wind cast shadows over the lights rippling in the water, like the night closing in before it’s banished by the light. Taehyung digs his nails into the stone of the bridge to keep himself from looking over his shoulder again. He knows the boy is still there because he can smell him on the wind, and he tries to find reassurance and comfort in that.

While Taehyung may not be very warm and affable of a person, he isn’t senseless or too prideful to know when he acts out of turn. So he finally says, “I apologize for the way my words might have hurt you. I hope you know that the manor isn’t somewhere you’re permitted to stay and can be removed from at any whim of mine. It is your home as much as it is mine. I apologize for my outburst and if I caused you any pain or distress.”

“Oh Taehyungieeee,” Hoseok coos. He wraps his arms around Taehyung’s arm and cuddles close. Taehyung instinctively flinches away. Not because he feels discomfort at the touch – because in the brief moments he’s always afforded it, he could collapse from it – but because he knows how cold he is. He doesn’t want to subject another person to that, and he doesn’t want to be reminded of it.

And because Hoseok is still so very young in vampire years, he still holds touches of the warmth he once had as a human. And as such, Taehyung’s centuries-old body provides such a shock of cold that he can only cuddle him for a mere second before he leans back. And because Hoseok is so kind, he tries to make it appear that that’s all he intended to do, and did not let go because he would be in pain if he held on for any longer.

“You didn’t hurt me,” Hoseok says. “We’ve all seen your moodiness lots of times.” Taehyung snorts. Many people, even those who have known Taehyung for decades, hesitate to even speak a few words to him. It could precisely be because Hoseok is so young that he isn’t too familiar yet with who Taehyung is, but he has never acted formally toward him in any way, and instead subjects him to teasing and affection and familiarity. Taehyung finds it entertaining, and it also feels… nice that someone doesn’t see the impersonal sum of his parts, and just sees Taehyung as someone who is many different, smaller things. Still, the teasing and prodding are entertaining to him, because almost every single vampire beyond the walls of their manor would probably pale if they saw anyone speak to Taehyung the way his friends do.

“Still,” Taehyung says, feeling awkward. “That was not fair of me to say, nor appropriate. I…” He clears his throat. He would probably be blushing if he were able to. “I appreciate very deeply that you and the others do not see me as Kim Taehyung, and have forgotten who I am. I didn’t mean what I said, and I apologize. I will do so to the others upon our return as well.”

“It’s okay; they get it too,” Hoseok shrugs it off like it’s no big deal. Taehyung looks away from the city-light-speckled water and over to Hoseok finally, now that the air has been somewhat cleared.

Hoseok has quite a sweet face. Very pretty and welcoming. Usually upon being turned, humans’ beauty is enhanced in a way that sharpens the edges, adds an air of mysteriousness that draws humans in. Whatever venom that changed Hoseok must have been slightly faulty, because he wasn’t given that touch of severity. Or maybe who Hoseok was as a person was so warm and bright that the venom didn’t stand a chance against that. The vampire allure instead became something inviting and approachable, rather than what others are giving that teeters close to manipulative and calculating. His eyes kept their warmth while his skin lost most of it, and the occasional sharpness of his incisors has never tainted the sweetness of his heart-shaped smile. Even with eyes as red as the color dripping from his teeth, Taehyung thinks a human still could confidently ask him for directions on the sidewalk without much fear.

Hoseok’s hair has recently been dyed from platinum back to its natural black, as he often does when the warmer seasons retire for the remainder of the year. A touch of red dusts the tip of his nose and his cheeks, because the temperatures still affect him given that he is so young. It matches the dark red of his puffy jacket, which falls over a pair of baggy jeans.

“Is there a particular reason you sought me out?” Taehyung asks, not unkindly.

Hoseok shrugs, still looking down at the glittering water with his forearms on the stone wall of the bridge. He finally looks over and gives him a kind smile. “Just thought you might want a friend. You wouldn’t have blown up if you weren’t feeling bad about something, so I thought you might want to talk about it, or would like the company if not.”

Taehyung returns his smile, but a smaller version of it. “Want to walk home?” he asks, because he assumes Hoseok might be feeling the cold soon.

Hoseok straightens up and walks beside him as they cross the bridge to follow the path through the park toward their home. At the last moment, Taehyung turns in a different direction to go slightly out of the way, veering from his usual route that has always taken him right to the sleeping boy’s bench decades before he was ever there. He is not sure why he leads them away. He would like to check in on him before he leaves for the day, but he just… wants to keep the boy hidden for now, even if Hoseok is one of the kindest, gentlest people he knows. He just wants to keep this as his for now, since he is not sure about what is behind any of it.

As they walk through the trees, the branches and sparse leaves join them in casting shadows on the sidewalk, illuminated by the occasional light they pass. It is still the middle of the night with the sun hours from rising, so the sky is a vibrant indigo with the moon shining bright. It’s quiet as it always is at this hour, just their footsteps. It is usually just his own, and he finds that he likes the way it sounds to have something accompanying it.

“I don’t like when others come to the manor,” Taehyung eventually says, even though it is obvious. “Baekhyun and his group specifically. I know that what Namjoon does for young vampires is selfless, and valuable, and honorable. I’ve seen what it does for them; I have seen what he did for you. It is important, and I’m certain it prevents so many casualties.

“I just wish it did not take place at my home. I spent a long, long time trying to find somewhere that felt like mine, and I don’t like that it is just… open to others. Not the six of you – not at all. Or, sorry, I misspoke. The five of you.

“I don’t like when others come to stay over. It makes it feel more like a hotel sometimes, somewhere less homey and intimate. And I don’t like the people themselves who come. Especially Baekhyun. It feels presumptuous as well. I don’t think who I am is anything to flaunt, but my name does come with many advantages; I am not naïve enough to not know that, nor cocky enough to bask in it. It just is what it is, but I know it means something to others. So it is very presumptuous and tells a lot that Baekhyun essentially invites himself and others over as he pleases.” His name does not even truly mean anything; it is just his age that makes him noteworthy, which seems very frivolous to him – especially when he has never been anything good enough to earn any type of worthy reputation.

“I’ve always gotten a weird vibe from him too,” Hoseok says. They step out of the park and into the forest. The dense trees swallow them up in the way darkness always seems to. The sound of their footsteps against pavement turns into crunching leaves and snapping twigs. “I don’t like when he comes. I don’t care about having visitors; I think it’s nice sometimes. But I know what you mean, and your opinion means more than ours, because it is your home first and you should have the final say. But Baekhyun and his group… Yeah. Something about them…”

Taehyung sighs. “I think I’ll speak to Namjoon, calmly,” a snicker from Hoseok, “about his work and try to reach a decision that will have a positive outcome for everybody involved. I’d hate to have to subject him to having to travel to those he aids in their transformation, so there must be a middle ground we can reach, because I don’t think he should stop his admirable work just for a single person who is no more important than the rest of the struggling vampires who would benefit from his patience and care.”

“Maybe we could get somewhere nearby?” Hoseok suggests. “There’s a lot of property around the manor where something could be built. That still would have others close though, and I’m sure Baekhyun wouldn’t catch the hint or follow the rules and would come to the house. So maybe another location close so others would have to travel, and Namjoon would only have to go a little bit away?”

Taehyung hums. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’m sure there are many places we could find or create that would serve him. Serve him better too, probably, if it is there specifically for this purpose, since it currently just takes place in a personal residence.”

Whistling autumn wind and the chill that it brings accompany them on their walk through the forest. They could make it home in the blink of an eye, but they’re both walking at a human pace, enjoying the journey. The light of the moon is briefly shadowed by a family of bats that disappear into the darkness of the night – quite an apt occurrence, Taehyung thinks with a chuckle. He lived when vampire stories first began to find a notable place in the world, so he’s been around to learn of each new addition to his fictitious lore passed through decades. Some details had to have been devised from genuine observation or experience, such as sensitivity to sunlight (which is not as violently dire as most stories imply, but it can be for others not as old as him) and, technically, sensitivity to garlic, but that is only because it has quite a strong odor that upsets their sensitive noses as any pungent human food would – not because it will kill them or physically ward them off like a force field.

The majority of the other ideas that have been thought up, though, are untrue and quite entertaining. His favorite being that he would be able to turn into a bat. He wishes that were true; it would be fun to be able to fly, and he thinks they’re quite cute. But alas, he is simply a vampire, and nothing more.

“How come you never help Namjoon with what he does?” Hoseok asks. “Not that you have to, obviously, just that it’s your house, so it seems like you’d oversee it or something.”

“I do not like newborns,” Taehyung responds. “I don’t have the patience for their behavior or dramatics. I know that it is difficult to navigate being a newborn vampire, to have to find the will to control so many parts of oneself, but I do not possess the sympathy required to be able to aid them effectively. It sounds cruel, but I just do not care enough to do so. I don’t think they should be left to fend for themselves and experience pain through self-inflicted moral starvation, or cause pain by attacking humans – which is why I allow strangers to come to the manor to be guided by someone who is kind and empathetic. That is as far as my involvement will go though.”

“You were nice to me when I was the fledgling being helped,” Hoseok says.

“I was not,” Taehyung laughs. “I was merely neutral at best. I mostly stayed away from that wing of the house, as I do when others are here. I recall maybe passing each other for a moment and nodding my head at you, and that was the end of our interaction until you were ready to move forward on your own.”

“Still, you weren’t mean,” Hoseok says.

“Well, I’m glad to know I didn’t cause you any more pain or discomfort than what you already had to experience during that time.”

Taehyung slowly begins to pick up his pace incrementally. He would like to be in the comfort of his home now. It will be a while until he can enjoy it as it should be since the others will be arriving soon, so he would like to enjoy it while he can. He enjoys walking with Hoseok, but his propensity for spending the night outside does not last as long when he is not alone. Something in his head tells him that that is not true, when he hasn’t fully been alone lately, but he ignores it and continues to cross the remainder of the dense forest. They exit out the other side, and the manor comes into view.

“Is it not difficult for you to aid Namjoon in his work?” Taehyung asks. “It wasn’t very long ago that you were the one who needed support.” Hoseok had a particularly rough go at it too, since he was a human that was attacked and did not know of the existence of vampires. Many of those that come don’t require assistance in psychology and history; they know of vampirism for one reason or another and have been taught the basics. Hoseok didn’t know this side of humanity existed, and needed to come to terms with all of that while being a rabid, young vampire. It wasn’t a very easy transition for him. Or so he’s heard, since he wasn’t there for it.

They walk through the wrought-iron gate that protects the manor, although it isn’t really required. Permitted vampires can get through its bounds without more exertion than taking a breath, and he and the others don’t need protection from humans. It gives the manor a rather gothic, appropriate appearance though, especially when the rusty gate squeaks with the movement in the cold autumn night.

The manor is large enough to house six people comfortably, giving each pairing of lovers their own wings where they can live comfortably if they don’t want to feel like they have housemates. There are libraries and offices and living rooms and a theatre, many types of spaces that are in constant use. There’s the area where Namjoon works with struggling vampires as well, and another section where they tend to temporarily stow the occasional human that doesn’t mind their fate.

It’s big enough for the many of those there to be comfortable and at peace, without looking like a small castle. Even if it might not be to others’ taste, to him, it looks like a home. Or as much as somewhere is able to for him. He remembers what it feels like to have a home, but he does not remember how. He does not remember where it was, or why this place does not feel that way.

The exterior is made of an aged, dark brick that shows the wear and weather of the many seasons it has withstood. The textured roof is black and reaches into the sky at various heights, some sections pointed into the darkness in spires, some lower peaks at the top of tower rooms. There are many windows to let in the daylight and are often avoided when the sun’s rays shine onto the floor, but there mostly to allow for a beautiful view of the grounds, of the vast gardens that are walked through before reaching the manor, overflowing with flowers of every kind. Hedges and hedge mazes and little things are hidden throughout, places to sit and ponder, a few hidden ponds where lilypads laze and toads swim. The manor can appear frightening and look a place one would think the looming, threatening home of vampires would be. But looking around for only a minute longer would reveal the flowers, the trees, the gnome Jimin hid in the garden and the fairy house Hoseok did too, the stray cats who are often napping in the sun outside or inside when someone lets them in, the suncatcher he hung up outside his balcony door because he likes the way the light mirrors onto the surroundings. They may not be alive, but there is life and beauty here.

They reach the tall solid wood front door, flanked by lanterns nestled into the brick that illuminate the porch in a warm flickering light. As Taehyung pushes the heavy entrance open, he spots a snowshoe cat laying on the end of the porch, the tip of its tail slowly flicking as it enjoys the peaceful night. The majority of animals are terrified of vampires, because they can sense the extreme, dangerous predators they are. Cats, however, have never seemed to care and find them to be suitable company, and the manor grounds inside and out are a haven to the stray cats in the way it ended up being for the six stray vampires. And he is happy they come around, because he got to watch Jimin, a lover of cats who was previously deathly allergic to them as a human, discover that he can finally pet and hold and cuddle them. There were always a few around prior to Jimin’s arrival in his life, but now that he’s here and is very mindful and caring in always setting out food and water for them, they’ve found a home as well.

They step inside the manor, into what one would most likely assume would be a grand foyer, but is instead a simple place to take off their shoes and coats. No soaring ceilings or chandeliers, but a side table with a lamp and bowl of car keys, a painting above it, a wall lined with whatever shoes someone was wearing upon arriving home, a coat rack that is always threatening to collapse, and an umbrella holder tucked into the corner.

They leave their shoes on the white mosaic tile floor and immediately slide on a pair of slippers. They pad across the burgundy rug, then onto the dark wood floors beyond the foyer that span across the majority of the manor. They walk past arched windows that interrupt the wooden wainscotting and olive-colored walls, or the different styles and mediums of art that are displayed, ranging from impressionist paintings to photographs of the inhabitants of the manor (who do show up in photos – another falsehood about his kind that came from someone’s imagination).

When they reach the area where Taehyung would normally turn left to go to his living quarters, Hoseok gives him a look of surprise when he continues to follow him. It’s not that Taehyung never spends his time with the others in any of the various living spaces, because he does just as much as anyone else there. He probably just wasn’t expecting him to do so following his outburst earlier.

But he feels better after his time with Hoseok, and he doesn’t want any negative feelings from his tantrum to stew for long enough to turn into something worse that may affect his relationship with anyone. So Hoseok follows him to the main living room, where everybody always is.

The living room is a spacious space, with tall domed ceilings made of glass. During the day, the windowed ceiling is covered by a mural reminiscent of a renaissance ceiling but with a more gothic, subtle twist to it, and it is controlled by a remote to keep them protected from the sun’s rays. At night, though, the blinds are pulled back and they have a view of the night sky and all of the stars they could wish to see, being far away from the city in a place surrounded by only woods.

There’s a big fireplace along one wall that they always have lit in the colder seasons despite not really needing the warmth, but it provides an extra cozy ambiance in the autumn storms and winter blizzards. It’s lit right now, with Jimin lying on the floor in front of it playing a video game device, while Yoongi lounges on the big velvet couch, taking a nap with one of the wandering cats asleep on his chest – this cat black and particularly fond of Yoongi. Seokjin sits on the opposite side of the couch, watching a movie on the big television, while Namjoon is in a tufted chair in the corner of the room, beside a lamp and a window looking out into the gardens, reading a book that Taehyung finished last week and recommended to him.

Jimin looks up when they walk onto the red Persian rug laid over the dark hardwood floors, and he gives him such a sweet smile, as if he didn’t blow up on all of them earlier. It makes something in Taehyung’s chest ache. Sometimes he wonders if it would have been better if he kept the doors of his manor shut and never invited anybody inside, because he’s not sure he’s worthy of having these people as his friends.

He clears his throat.

Jimin is already looking at him, and Seokjin looks over too. Namjoon takes a few seconds to do so once he’s finished the paragraph he’s on, and Yoongi just grunts without opening his eyes to show he’s listening.

“I am very sorry for my outburst earlier,” Taehyung starts. “I was just not happy to hear that there would be others coming to the manor, because I do not like other people,” a snort from closed-eyed Yoongi followed by a tinkly laugh from Jimin, “so I, inappropriately and unjustly, took it out on you all. And I sincerely apologize.” He deeply bows and hangs his head. When he straightens back up, he continues, “You all have not forgotten who I am, as I said earlier. You all are the only ones who really know who I am. After a life of being around different people in different ways who all treated me differently, and an even longer time of being alone, I am so happy to just be Tae. Not Kim Taehyung, but Tae to you all. I hope you know that this is your home, and that you are safe here. Safe from me, and because of me, because there isn’t anything I would not do to protect you all and your happiness. I am deeply, truly sorry if what I said made you doubt for a second how much I treasure you all. I’m sorry.”

He bows again, and when he straightens back up, Jimin is wrapped around him in a tight hug. Taehyung finds himself sinking into it for a second, something in his stomach fluttering at the physical contact after so long of being without it. But then the overwhelming cold gets to Jimin, and he steps back.

“I forgive you, Taetae,” Jimin says. “We know you just don’t like when people come over and that you didn’t mean what you said.”

He looks around the room at Namjoon still sitting in his chair, and he offers him a calm smile and nods his head to show he agrees. From his spot on the couch, Yoongi sleepily mutters, “It’s fine,” and Seokjin nods too, adding, “No hard feelings.”

“Along with that though,” Taehyung says, “Hoseok had a great idea I wanted to discuss with you, Namjoon.” Namjoon closes his book and sets it on the side table, giving him his full attention. “He suggested finding another setting where you could do your work. Somewhere close by that you wouldn’t have to travel far to, but somewhere that isn’t our home, and it would be somewhere we could accommodate your needs better too. I’m sure it is restrictive since you are working with others in a home. You guys aren’t as… temperamental and sensitive as me, but I think you will find that not having your home as a communal space where guests can come and go will be a nice feeling. This is your home; it is not a working facility, and it should be somewhere comfortable, somewhere that’s just yours. So I would like to work together, Namjoon, to find a space that would suit you. If there’s a location you are keen on, but there isn’t a property there, we of course have the funds to build anything you have in mind, or renovate any spaces that are available. Something that would make things easier on you when you don’t have to do it with only the resources available to you at a personal residence.

“It ultimately is up to you of course,” he finishes with. “You are the one doing the admirable work. I want to support you in a way that would benefit you the most.”

Namjoon doesn’t even need time to think about it. He immediately says, “Yeah, I think that’s a great idea. I thought about it before, but we only get a couple of groups of people coming per year, so it didn’t really seem logical to get a whole new space for it.”

“Nonsense,” Taehyung says. Yoongi snorts from his spot on the couch, him and Jimin always teasing him for his vocabulary. “You all know that we have the money. This would be nothing, and I would be happy to do anything that would make your life easier.” He looks around the room. “The same for all of you, in any way.”

Jimin coos. Taehyung would blush if he were able to. Jimin is always teasing him. “And no one knows that the Kim Taehyung, ancient vampire who yells at everyone, is such a sweetheart under all of that.”

Taehyung rolls his eyes. He’s not evil, just indifferent to a slightly (maybe more than slightly) callous degree. But his friends are so kind to him, undeservingly so, and loyal. He wants to show them kindness and loyalty in return – as he would anybody who is deserving of it. And most people are not deserving of it.

“Anyway,” Taehyung says. “We can discuss it in depth tomorrow. I’m tired and am going to retire to my living quarters for now. If any of you need anything though, you are welcome to find me. Have a good night.” He gives a small bow, which is met with various sounds of amusement and followed with versions of wishing him a goodnight.

He leaves the living room and walks through the manor, all the way to the opposite side – a couple minute’s walk. The arched windows he passes still show the stars in the sky and the shadowed trees in the forest that are becoming more barren as the days go on. The art hanging on the wall between the windows or displayed on side tables show scenes from lives he has lived. Not because they are his paintings, but because he lived in the time period the painters created art in – at least the art that he has gotten his hands on. Moody winter nights and colorful springtime days, summertime fields and autumn forests. Candle-lit sconces light his way down the hallway, past many different rooms and intersections leading to the others’ personal areas of the manor. He looks down at the shape he casts on the dark wooden floor, his shadow so dark it can still be seen.

It’s not that the thought of the boy appears. It is almost as if he has been there from the time he first saw him, in the way he knows that during the daytime, the stars are in the sky because they do not leave; they are just unseen until night has fallen. He turns a corner into his living quarters, and a glimpse out the window shows more branches on trees than the leaves covering them. A strange feeling appears inside of him, a thought swaying from his head like a fallen leaf. Will the boy still be sleeping on a park bench when they’re deeper into autumn? When winter returns?

He is not left to think more about it, because almost as soon as he arrives back at his bedroom, there is a knock on the door. He laughs to himself and opens it to find Jimin standing there, his pink hair so bright amidst the decor around him. He assumed Jimin would want to be with him to provide more comfort and reassurance as Hoseok did earlier, but instead he looks nervous as he shuffles on his feet.

“Is everything okay?” Taehyung asks.

Jimin nods wordlessly. Taehyung steps aside so Jimin can enter. His friend crosses the room and sits on one of the chairs in the sitting area rather than inviting himself into his bed as he always does. Confused and a little unnerved, Taehyung joins him.

Jimin faces the windows that peer out into the garden instead of facing him. Taehyung cannot see his expression, but he can see the tense set of his shoulders. Again, he asks, “Are you okay?”

Jimin turns to him, but he looks down at his hands in his lap. He swallows. Taehyung watches his adam’s apple bob. With a tremor in his voice, Jimin says, “I don’t… I don’t know how I could s-stay here without you.”

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows, deepening the faint line that has embedded itself there. “What do you mean?” he asks. “I have no plans to move. Do you mean the training center? The purpose of that is to have somewhere that is not a residence. I will still be at the manor.”

When Jimin finally looks at him, tears are swimming in his big eyes. “I don’t mean that. Earlier, when you were yelling at everyone, y-you implied you’re going to, you know… end this. Your life. And I–Tae, I can’t do that. Maybe this is selfish of me, but you can’t. You can’t. I don’t know how I could live without you with me. Y-You’re my–my best friend. When I met you and we became how we are now, it was the first time I was ever so truly happy and grateful for my immortality, because it meant I got to be with you forever. And I need to be with you forever. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here anymore.”

Jimin starts to finally cry, and cold tears spill down Taehyung’s cheeks too. He’d forgotten he said that. It has been in his head for the longest time, and he didn’t mean to let it slip. “I…” he starts weakly. He doesn’t know how to speak about it. “I’m sorry that that is something you have to carry with you now. I didn’t mean to say it.”

“You mean you didn’t mean it?”

Taehyung swallows. That is not what he means. He wants to lie to Jimin, but he cannot. “No, I… I meant it.”

“Tae,” Jimin sobs. Taehyung wishes he could hold him, but he would make him feel worse. He can provide no comfort; he would only make him feel colder. “Why? Why do you want to do that?”

Taehyung balls his hands into fists to try to stop his tremble. “I’ve just… I’ve been alive for so long. I’m very tired. It is not a tiredness that could be lightened by finding a way to rest. I feel it in my soul. In my bones. Every part of my body. I have been here so long that days don’t mean anything anymore. And if every new day brings nothing, if life has stopped having meaning, and I’m so tired, what is the point? Finally being put to rest would be achieving peace.” He does not mention his moments of despair, because those are only his own. The way, for no reason at all, he sometimes falls to his knees with a forlorn cry that claws at his throat until he can scream no more, or he stumbles because it feels like something has been pulled out of his chest, leaving an absence so profound he cannot even make a sound. He does not speak of it. He tells him that he is just tired, because it is the truth.

“How can you say that?” Jimin says. His voice is no longer small and scared; it is angry now. “Do I just–do I just mean nothing to you? Every day has me in it. And that means nothing? It brings nothing? Being together has no meaning?”

Taehyung’s stomach drops. He stands, turning fully toward him. “No, no, that’s not–that’s not what I meant. I–”

“Whether you meant it or not, it’s how you feel and that’s–that’s–” Jimin shakes his head, not having a word to call it as tears stream down his cheeks.

“Jimin-ah,” Taehyung says desperately. “That’s–it wasn’t what I meant–you–” The next time Taehyung blinks, Jimin’s seat is empty, and there is a slam of his bedroom door.

Taehyung sinks back into his chair in anguish.

He is aware of how what he said sounded, but Jimin has to know that he is the brightest light in his life. He is precisely the reason why he is still here. If Jimin lived for as long as he has, he thinks he would understand. He should have chosen his words more carefully, because he cherishes every second he has spent with Jimin. His exhaustion and desire for rest doesn’t mean his friendship with Jimin means nothing, because it means everything.

He sighs. He wants to go after him, but he knows from experience that when they have a fight, it is best to not seek each other out until they have been able to feel their feelings and allowed them to simmer. Usually their fights are over petty, inconsequential things though – nothing like this. Still, he decides to give it some time for both of their sakes.

He decides to get ready for bed. It’s not something that is necessary considering they do not have to sleep, but it is a human ritual he decided to adopt. Without finding a place to end and start, it would just make his life feel like one long, endless day. It is already how he feels, so he does what he can to try to trick himself into believing life isn’t so long.

He steps into his bathroom and flicks on the lights. A dim glow illuminates the room as best as it can when painted so dark. He peers into the ornate mirror hanging above the sink and barely sees anything looking back at him. Tired, dark eyes. Lines indented beside them that never really deepen. He must have smiled enough, at one time, to change his skin so irrevocably, but nothing he does anymore makes the marks any deeper. The moonlight falling through the small stained glass window beside the bathtub tints the lighter parts of his hair a new color, the highlight of grey beside his temple appearing more red, then purple, then its natural grey as a cloud must be passing over the moon.

He undresses, then he turns on his shower as hot as it can go and steps into the stall. As soon as he closes the glass door behind him, something in him opens up. He feels the hard tile bruising his knees before he even realizes he is falling. His forearms catch him when he collapses forward, and a cry echoes around him, so animalistic and desperate he would not believe it came from him if it weren’t for the way he can feel it tearing out of him.

It is not what happened with Jimin. It is not his tiredness from still being here. It is something else, but he does not know what. All he knows is that he is sometimes hit with a despair so hopeless and painful that he does not know how he can ever come back from it. He chokes on an anguished wail as his hands curl into fists. Please, something in him begs. Please, please. He does not know what he is asking for; he does not know why he cries. He does not know why he feels something being taken and taken and taken until it leaves him as this shell of a person. He trembles and aches and begs and sobs. He tries to tell himself that it will pass, but when the pain is here, it feels as though it will never leave. All he can do is beg and beg, but when he does not know what he is begging for, anything who might be kind to someone such as him would not even know what to give. It is a pain so familiar, but he does not know where it starts. It just feels woven into who he is, like he has been changed from it, the despair so big that sometimes he has no choice but to feel it. Please, something in him continues to beg. He has never felt so hopeless. Please. It is always on the tip of his tongue. The thing he is begging for. The reason for his pain. It is always there, but as out of reach as the possibility of the suffering ever ending.

The water has gone cold by the time he is able to feel anything other than the ebbing agony. The bones in his hands creak painfully as he uncurls his fingers and presses his palms flat on the ground. His back aches when he slowly sits up, feeling every notch of his spine righting itself. He hangs his head, letting the cold water rain down from him and drip from his soaked strands of hair. At least the pelting cold distracts him from whatever it is he needs reprieve from.

He wishes he could feel the warmth of something. Of anything. Even the heat of the water turns cold the second it touches him. He wishes he could feel the arms of another wrap around him, even if he cannot feel the warmth of it. He wishes he could feel anyone’s touch long enough to be able to settle into it. His body reflects his true age in only this cruel way. He would trade it for his looks, his agility, his immortality in a heartbeat. He would gladly close his eyes knowing they would never open again if he could do so in someone else’s arms. He thinks, though, that if anybody could stand to touch him for more than a few seconds, he could not settle in their hold. He does not think that he is someone who can be held.

He pulls himself to his feet, feeling a pulse in his knees from the way they collided so harshly with the ground. He leans against the shower wall, squeezing his eyes shut to stop the spinning in his vision. The feeling is akin to nausea, but it is a welcome reprieve as the hole in his chest is sewn back together. He never looks down until he feels like he might be okay again, always scared that he will find himself torn open there.

He drags himself out of the shower, his skin wrinkling from so long in the water. He avoids looking at himself in the mirror as he dries off. He hangs his head to dry his hair to avoid lifting his arms in case the spot where he was stitched shut again might pull open. He stumbles to his closet and dresses in a silk pajama set, then pulls the curtains in his room shut. He turns off all the lights before he slides into bed.

He can see as well now as he could when the lights were on, and it’s always been something small and inconsequential that he has resented. He wishes he could feel the comfort of a dark, quiet room. He wishes he could feel the protection of it, the way it hides him, but he feels as vulnerable as he would if out in the sun. He wishes he could feel like he is safe somewhere, like his feelings and his thoughts could not find him. Even when they do, he cannot identify them the way they so easily know who he is, as if they are old friends that he can no longer remember, but they have never forgotten him.

Chapter Text

Jimin will not talk to him.

Every time Taehyung enters a room, a spot Jimin once occupied will be empty just a second later.

It has become somewhat of an unspoken rule that when at the manor, its residents will walk at a calm, human pace. They are all able to arrive to where they intend to be in less than a heartbeat of time, but they do not use that ability here. It allows their home to keep its feeling of being a slow, calm haven, when most spaces for them in the world are not.

Jimin is clearly ignoring this rule so that he doesn’t have to spend more than a second in the same space as Taehyung. Taehyung, of course, could stop him and restrain him, considering he is the fastest and strongest of anybody who lives there. But if Jimin does not want to see him, he is not going to force it.

Should he though? Should he insist that Jimin listen to him, that they work out what they are able to, to try to clear the misunderstanding? Would it be better to give Jimin time to approach him when he’s ready, on his own terms? Taehyung has not had such a long lasting relationship of this kind before, so he is unsure how to navigate this, what the correct move is.

Ultimately, the decision is made for him when a bell sounds through the halls of the manor. It is a sound he has slowly developed a pavlovian response to. It makes his eyes flash red knowing it announces the arrival of someone, the color in his irises revealing itself at either the possibility of a human to feed on, or as a warning and a threat to the vampires who have appeared on his doorstep.

There is a growl low and deep in his chest as he stalks through the manor to the front door.

Everything that takes place during this time is entirely in Namjoon’s hands, but he is the master of the manor, so he is always the one to answer the door and invite their guests inside (because of customary, formal, proper traditions that he still lives by, since any of the members of his household have the ability to invite other vampires into their home).

Taehyung opens the heavy, solid wood front door with a creak of the hinges. It is something they routinely oil out of their other doors when needed since the manor is such an old build, but he likes the foreboding ambience it brings around anyone who may brave the manor and the creatures that live beyond its walls.

The land beyond the manor is dark, the night sky clouded over so the only light around comes from the lanterns hanging outside of the front door. He might like to spend some time within it, to sit on the porch with the cats that lounge around, but that will not be on his agenda during the coming days. His jaw tenses at the smile he is met with when his eyes refocus.

He sees true, genuine, bright smiles every day from Jimin and Hoseok and the rest of his friends. Even if he did not and had been a shut-in (like he once was), he would be able to see right through Baekhyun’s fake smile immediately. It has a sordid quality to it – overconfidence, too much ease, as if he thinks he is able to wrap Taehyung around his finger. As if that could ever work, simply for the fact alone that Baekhyun does not ever conceal his fangs. Taehyung has always found it horrendously tacky, the way he wants to boast who he is, as if it is something to show off and not a shameful curse.

This time, Baekhyun’s hair is black (thankfully no longer an aggressive blonde so bright it burnt Taehyung’s eyes) and styled up from his forehead in a quiff. And he’s wearing sunglasses. At night, as a vampire. Taehyung immediately wants to run off and find Jimin to tell him, but then he remembers that he and Jimin are not on speaking terms at the moment, and his mood sours even more.

Baekhyun takes off his sunglasses and hooks them over the collar of his t-shirt that is stamped with a designer logo. His smile starts to edge into a smirk. “Nice to see you again, Taehyung,” he says in a smooth voice. Taehyung can tell he is holding himself back from running his eyes up and down his body for emphasis. Despite his overconfidence around such an old and powerful vampire, he at least has some awareness.

“Taehyung-ssi, I think you meant to say,” Taehyung says, an unspoken warning in his tone. “And hello, Baekhyun-ssi, you may come in.” He steps aside to let him in, and he nods politely at the others he brought with him. Two vampires around Baekhyun’s age that have always been part of his posse when they come to Taehyung’s manor – both nondescript and not worth learning the names of, because he wouldn’t be able to recognize them or tell them apart. And with them is a young vampire, clearly teetering the lines of being rabid. His irises are a vibrant red, and his fangs are dropped because he is unable to control it – not because he thinks it gives him a certain air around him like his handler does. The fledgling’s eyes are darting around the manor, his movements fast, not even seeming aware of his surroundings.

“You may follow me. I will lead you to Namjoon,” Taehyung says. He turns and heads in the direction of Namjoon’s office.

Baekhyun is beside him in a second, keeping pace. “I know the way around the place by now, but I don’t mind the tour guide,” he says, the smirk audible in his tone. The fact that anybody besides his household members knows their way around his home makes him have to focus on relaxing his body to keep from doing what is passing through his mind – especially when that person is Baekhyun. He thinks about sending him through the wall, but he stays silent instead.

“How’ve you been?” Baekhyun asks. Taehyung noticed long ago that Baekhyun naturally has a higher-pitched voice, but he attempts to deepen it when he talks. On occasion he will catch himself not doing so, and he will change the pitch of his voice halfway through a sentence. Taehyung also smells cologne on him, which he has always found to be rude and discourteous considering they all have sensitive noses, but maybe he’s just being nitpicky now.

“Fine,” Taehyung says, his tone very obviously communicating that he is not interested in making conversation.

Baekhyun, however, came all this way specifically to try to talk to Taehyung (under the guise of needing to accompany the newborn on his journey), so Taehyung knows he’s not going to be detoured. He begins a story of some sort about his penthouse, but Taehyung does not follow it. He knows that it is clearly only meant to convey his wealth and way of life – as if wealth or its reflections mean anything to Taehyung.

They arrive at a seldom-used living area in a separate wing of the manor from their cozy, lived-in space. The living room they all use looks as if they live there. It is a bit of a mess, with the couches and chairs broken in, a few of the pieces of furniture chipped or wobbly as byproducts of their lives. This space is impersonal, stiff where theirs is comfortable. The decor is limited, the place sparse, all of it meant to impose the message that this is not a place to linger, because this is not a home for their guests.

In the middle of Baekhyun’s meaningless story, Taehyung says, “Here is Namjoon and Seokjin,” to the group and no one in particular. His two friends sit politely, ready to begin their work. “They will be assisting you through your time here, and should you need anything on your stay, they will see to it.” He glances at the newborn and the black veins around his eyes. He looks somewhere in his twenties, his true life cut so short. Taehyung would feel pity if he felt anything at all. He just nods at him, then he looks to his friends and does the same. They give him a sympathetic look, and Taehyung just shrugs. Without a word to Baekhyun or the others, he leaves the room.

To his relief, Baekhyun doesn’t follow. He is rather necessary in the beginning of this process since he is the one who brought the newborn to them, so it usually gives Taehyung enough time to disappear from anywhere Baekhyun can access. He rushes to his living quarters and peers out the windows, looking at the sky.

Awaiting their arrival couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time. It had been a gloomy, overcast day – enough protection from the sun that Taehyung could have made his way to the city in the morning to see if the boy left a note behind on the bench like he told him to if there is something he needs. After waiting for his guests to arrive though, it will almost be time for the boy to return for the night to sleep.

He leaves immediately, especially when Baekhyun’s presence will not be needed by Namjoon anymore at some point. He does not want to be seen leaving, and he definitely does not want to be followed.

He arrives at the park only a few seconds later. Despite the darkness that has already taken over the sky, it is only evening. Occasionally the sky will adjust and the blanket of clouds will shift, showing off the barest peek of the setting sun painting the clouds in warm hues, hidden to them when the clouds fall back over the sky once more, and night tries to settle in again. The days have become shorter and shorter, which is always quite nice for him, but now he sees the way it can be unfortunate for others. Or for one person specifically, when it means less heat from the sun and less protection in the daylight.

He slows his pace at the edge of the park, just in case any humans might be wandering through. It seems to be empty save for the occasional person rushing past – probably wanting to get home after a late night of work so they don’t have to walk when it gets even colder as the night deepens.

Something in Taehyung strangely aches when he thinks of the boy sleeping out in the cold like this. But he’s not sure what else he can do. He has given him money multiple times, hoping it would be spent on finding a place to stay. Maybe he won’t return to the park tonight and will actually find himself somewhere safer to go, and that ache in Taehyung gets selfishly worse.

Taehyung arrives at the park bench he has watched over for a few nights now. Its chipping paint, the edge of one of the wooden planks rotting from water damage that he hadn’t seen, because it is where the boy’s arms are usually folded. He can see it now because the bench is empty, the sleeping boy not in his place since it is still rather early to be sleeping.

There is not a note either. Taehyung moves closer and looks beneath the bench, seeing only patches of rotting grass poking through the dirt. He searches the area around him, in case it might have been blown away. He circles the burnt out lamp post, even picks through the litter that has gathered there, but only finds an empty discarded box of chewing gum, a crushed can of cheap beer, and scraps of garbage. He walks through the grass, inspecting every inch of it, and checks the area across the sidewalk too.

But there is nothing.

Taehyung hopes it means that maybe he gave the boy everything he needed? He finds that hard to believe, since it was only the barest of necessities. He doesn’t know why the boy wouldn’t fill the entire page since the opportunity was there.

He freezes when a gust of wind blows through the park and delivers to him the scent that has been invading his thoughts, his nose, his lungs. Blood, always blood, but with something more to it. Taehyung thinks that if he saw the boy bleed, he would find the red of it warmer than it is for others.

Taehyung quickly walks away from the bench before the boy can arrive. He keeps his head down so it hopefully appears as if he is rushing toward something and not away. He glances around him and sees that no one is looking his way, then he sits at a different bench across the park, still in view of the one he has been watching each night. He smells the air so he can detect where the boy is on his journey through the park without raising suspicions if he were to look over and watch him. He breathes in his scent, and his eyelids feel heavier.

He realizes, with an odd sense of panic, that he has never seen the boy when he’s awake before. He has never seen him stretched to his full height. He’s never seen him move before, has only seen what the wind could do.

He has never seen his eyes. He will now, and something in him flutters. It is with a tinge of trepidation, perhaps like butterflies with dark-colored wings, black and crimson that flutter through the night.

He hears the boy’s footsteps get closer, the tap of them on the cement. He listens to the rhythm of his walk. He waits until he is a handful of steps nearer, and he finally looks his way. He is far enough that a human might have to squint, but Taehyung can see him crystal clear.

His eyes.

They’re tired. They are rimmed with red and framed by purple and blue from a lack of sleep. They’re partially shut too, eyelids at half-mast as if everything is trying to pull him down for rest. But that is not what makes Taehyung go still.

They’re… they’re so…

They land on Taehyung across the park before he can even begin to try to think of any words that could come close to what he sees.

Taehyung quickly looks away.

He watches him out of the corner of his eye. He sees the boy looking all around him. He is trying to be subtle about it, but is not doing so very successfully with the way his eyes dart around. Taehyung remembers the note, and that the boy knows he is being watched to some extent. He hates that he is contributing so significantly to a sense of paranoia the boy might have already been feeling to begin with, but he couldn’t just leave him to freeze on a park bench with no supplies.

Once the boy has scoped out the area enough to reassure himself, his head hangs down slightly to just focus on the sidewalk as he walks. Dark wavy hair shields the upper half of his face, occasionally flowing back when the wind appears before falling forward again. His shoulders are curled in – maybe from exhaustion, maybe from a desire to be smaller and unseen, maybe a mix of both. Taehyung can hear the sound of his shoes against the sidewalk, each step dragging rather than only tapping. He is wearing the hoodie Taehyung bought for him, he realizes. He had been so blindsided by seeing his eyes that he hadn’t noticed. It is nothing special, just a black sweatshirt to match his black sweatpants, but he is wearing what Taehyung gave him. It makes Taehyung sit up straighter, makes the heel of his shoe tap against the grass a few times when his leg bounces before he stills himself again.

He wishes he had the foresight to bring a book with him, but he had been in such a rush to leave. He does not know how to appear natural and normal when the boy sits on his usual bench and looks around him. It would help if he had something to cover for him as he steals glances of the boy; doing so while just sitting here would be too obvious. He keeps his eyes across the park, watching birds hop from branch to branch in the half-barren trees. A brown shrike. Two bearded reedlings. A regulidae. He allows his eyes to wander to the boy. He is still sitting up on his bench, watching everyone and everything around him, his arms crossed. Taehyung forces himself to look away. A brown leaf falls from a young oak tree. A squirrel rushes past with an acorn in their cheek. Taehyung looks over to the boy again. He is as awake as the birds and the trees and the squirrels. His eyes are open, looking around him. When he looks up, Taehyung realizes that the thick clouds have cleared, and the sky is showing the last colors of the sunset. He wonders what it sees when looking down at the boy. If his eyes are round. If he is looking up in wonder, or simply to gauge how long it will be until he can sleep. The boy looks back down, and he scans the park again. Taehyung quickly looks away.

He wishes he could watch him. He wishes he could really learn who he is when he’s awake. He has been so close to him as he sleeps, has seen the way his cheeks look so soft, the way his lips pout. He wishes he knew such intimate things that come with the daytime. He can’t just stare at him across the park and make him feel uneasy though. He is afraid that even his presence might make him want to find somewhere else to sleep. It could be somewhere unsafe. Not that the park is necessarily safe, but the park has Taehyung in it, and, without meaning to, he resolves to make sure he sleeps safely from now on. He knows it was already decided the first moment he laid eyes on him; he did not have a say in it.

The colors of the sunset have now mostly given way to the colors of twilight with the night just at its heels. Taehyung stands, because he’s sure the boy will not be comfortable enough to lie down and sleep when there is someone else in the park with him. He walks casually in the direction that will lead him back to the city streets, as if he was just taking a rest on the bench on his way to wherever he is going. He doesn’t glance at the boy as he leaves, but he can sense his eyes on him. It is a strange feeling, to be watched back.

He keeps a slow, human pace as he walks. He listens for any other human sounds in the park. There aren’t any, except for the boy’s breathing that he can hear all the way from here. He is not sure he has ever been able to hear something so delicate that barely makes a sound, from such a distance.

He crosses over the stone bridge that arches across the quaint river. When he reaches the other side, the lights in the park flicker on with the arrival of night. The moon is high in the sky, the stars hidden by the lights of the city. He does not pass anyone on his way to the entrance of the park, and he does not hear anyone enter it either.

He continues walking out of the park just in case. He does not think the boy can see him from here, even if there weren’t so many trees to obstruct his view. Perhaps he can detect if he is not alone though. He hasn’t been for several nights now.

He crosses the street into the city, and he finally stops walking. Taehyung enjoys his walk through the park, how it feels like a little haven from downtown. It somehow mutes any sounds beyond its bounds, the sparse trees just dense enough to trick them into believing they are somewhere in nature when such a busy city is just a few minute’s walk away.

He settles in to wait. He leans against a metal newspaper box on the sidewalk, rusted and old with stickers and graffiti on the window that once showed the city’s paper available to buy for only a few coins. He used to enjoy reading the newspaper – the crinkle of the pages, the smell of the paper – but as time went on, he became less and less interested in human affairs. He began to see even more clearly how the majority of them are senseless with avoidable problems and tragedies, and it became more of a hassle to get newspapers when digital media became more popular than print anyway.

He waits for some more time to pass. He looks at the peeling, faded sticker stuck to the grimy plastic window of the newspaper box, the logo of a pizza restaurant barely discernible. He looks up and his eyes peer down the street. Still a few cars drive by since night has only just fallen, but the sidewalks are empty of any people since all of the stores on this street are closed. He looks in the window of the designer clothing store in front of him, seeing his reflection. Elbow leaned against the newspaper box, body tilted, one ankle crossed over the other. His brown coat hangs down, occasionally blowing in the breeze like his hair does as well. His hair has gotten longer lately, no longer really falling mysteriously (as Jimin says) over his eyes, but more so overgrown and fluffy. He’ll have Jimin cut it when he gets home. But then he remembers that Jimin won’t speak to him, and he sighs. He straightens up and walks back toward the park so he doesn’t have to think about anything else.

He crosses the street, keeping a normal walking pace since cars have stopped at the red light and are probably watching the strange man walking into the park at the late hour. He steps through the bounds of the trees, then over the bridge. On the other side, he silences himself. He makes his steps light and undetectable, like a predator sneaking up on its prey.

The boy appears to be sleeping now.

Appears to be.

Taehyung can hear the sound of his breathing. The way it is intentionally made to be slow and even, rather than the way it actually sounds and appears naturally through real sleep. He is probably staying alert in case he will catch whoever has been watching him. Again, Taehyung feels a pang of guilt, because he doesn’t want to cause any fear or paranoia for the boy – especially when he already probably feels a fair amount of that as it is. Still, he believes that what he is doing outweighs the boy’s paranoia. He is being watched and protected, kept safe when sleeping so vulnerably and openly. He is providing necessary essentials for him too. He knows his judgement on morality and ethics are skewed, though. He knows he is being selfish too.

In the shadow of a tree still a ways away, Taehyung waits.

He watches and he listens. Occasionally, the boy will pull his eyelids up just slightly to take a quick look around him before closing them again. It makes Taehyung have to try to suppress a laugh, but it is still tinged with sadness and regret. Then the boy sits completely straight up suddenly, catching Taehyung off guard for perhaps the only time in his life, making him jump. He slinks back further into the shadows even though he knows he can’t be seen by the human eye right now.

He watches the boy unzip his backpack. He pulls out the fleece blanket Taehyung put in there. He lets the air kick it up, and it settles over his body. When he lies back down with his arms cushioning his head, there is the smallest curve to his lips. Taehyung realizes he has one too. With the black shield covering him, it makes the boy blend in more with the night, only the lighter color of his skin showing that anyone is even there. Taehyung feels himself relax, knowing the boy is warmer and more hidden too.

With a bit of extra warmth and comfort, it is only a few minutes later that the boy falls asleep. His face relaxes and his breathing truly evens out. Taehyung waits a few minutes more, then he starts to walk closer.

He wishes he’d gotten to stare more earlier. He wishes he could have openly watched his face when he was awake. He wishes he could have gotten more of a glimpse of his eyes, to figure out what it was about them that made his mind go blank. It’s okay though, because now he gets to be closer to him in the way he’ll only be able to when he’s asleep.

He listens closely to his breathing, to his heartbeat to make sure he’s in deep enough sleep that he is able to crouch down right in front of him. His knees crack with the movement, because he still does have the body of a forty-two year old. He freezes, tensing that maybe the noise could be heard by the boy. He remains asleep though, so Taehyung lowers himself the rest of the way down so their faces are aligned.

He looks at the bags under his eyes. Purple like a twilight sky. He tries to conjure in his mind what his eyes looked like when opened, but he was only able to take a few stolen glances. He saw enough, though, to know that something about them snagged on him, something he cannot figure out. Perhaps it was the innocence, or the shimmer of the lights, or the tiredness. Perhaps it was nothing, and he just thinks the boy is a type of beauty he does not think he has ever seen before.

His eyes trail down. The cut on his cheek has started to heal. It is no more than a surface wound now fully scabbed over, half of it faded into healed skin now. Still, it stands out so drastically on his skin. Or perhaps it is only because Taehyung is a vampire, and the smallest suggestion of blood captures his attention so firmly.

He moves out of a crouch so he is sitting on the ground in front of the bench. The tip of the boy’s nose is red, but his body isn’t shivering like he’s sure it would be without his new, heavier clothes and the protective blanket. Taehyung is glad he was here to provide him with warmth in the way he can; he does not let himself think about what might have become of the boy if he never found him. Now the boy has him, and he will be okay because of it.

Taehyung finds himself leaning in without meaning too. Even when he notices, he does not stop himself. He leans in closer and closer to his body. When he is as near as he can get away with, he takes a deep breath in through his nose. He could smell him perfectly fine from where he was, even from where he stood outside of the park, but he wants to be closer, wants to feel his warmth even though it could never take the cold from him.

Taehyung swallows the low growl forming in his throat. He realizes again that it was more like a purr. He tricks himself into believing that he can feel his warmth, from his blood to his body heat to the glimpse of the jaded eyes he saw for a moment before he had to look away. He aches to reach out and touch him, to feel the heat of his skin against his hand, to rest it on his heartbeat and feel what he can hear. He doesn’t know why this human has captivated him, but he wishes for more than watching him as he sleeps. He doesn’t know what more he wants, but more than this.

But he is okay like this too. He will find a way to be okay with only this, watching over him in his vulnerability, making sure no harm will come to him in the hours he is able to do so. And as autumn deepens, the clouds in the sky will knit together to form a blanket of grey to shield some of the sun, making it easier for him to roam during the day. Maybe he will do so when he can, be part of the boy’s shadow just in case harm might try to find its way to him.

Something in the back of his mind is calling him various names. They are scoffing and laughing and making noises of disbelief that a human has taken a role in his life. He ignores it all. He watches the boy’s eyelashes and the way they cast such faint shadows against his cheeks under the weak light of the moon. Something in his mind calls him embarrassing, strange, senseless, but he can’t hear the voice as he follows the curve of the boy’s lips, the lines etched in the bottom one, a beauty mark dotted beneath it. That beauty mark. So captivating, so delicate. He hears teasing and mocking and scorn, but he sees a small scar carved out on the boy’s rosy cheek, and he wonders what happened for it to be there. A gust of wind kicks up his scent like it did when he was throwing the blanket across him earlier, and it silences everything in his head. Warm and rich, smelling more luscious than any food humans could make. Taehyung feels his canine teeth sharpen, poking into his bottom lip. He is in control, he knows he is – even if lately that control has been tested in a way it hasn’t since his much younger days – but his head is becoming slightly foggier, like a daydream is taking over while in the dead of night. The voices are silenced, even his mystifying observations. All is gone except for the scent of blood invading him, that enrapturing, bewildering scent. It is not just blood, it is as if it is the sum of so many alluring, delicious parts, but he cannot pick each of them out because the union of them all is too seductive to not fall under its spell. He leans in closer, only a mere few centimeters from the boy’s neck. He takes a deep breath in through his nose, letting it invade him to its fullest extent. That purr from earlier sounds in his chest again, closer to a growl now because of the way he is tempting himself and fate. He can’t remember the last time he fed for anything other than necessity, can’t remember the last time he enjoyed it beyond just satiating his thirst. He would enjoy it from the boy. He can already tell the way his blood would pool on his tongue, how it would slide down his throat. How warm it would be, how rich and full he knows it tastes. He would drink from him out of enjoyment, not out of need, but out of greed, gluttony, a lust for blood that went numb along with the rest of him so long ago. He would make the boy feel good from it too, he would make him feel so good, let him feel his venom that others have never been afforded, allow them to both get drunk off of each other. It is all in his head, blood dripping down the boy’s neck as Taehyung drinks from him, noises of pleasure and long sighs framed by the smoky fog of his moonlit daydream, the mist and haze clouding him further and further.

It isn’t until a gust of wind blows it all away that he realizes his face is in the boy’s neck, his lips just a hair’s breadth from the violet vein that’s taken root there.

He jerks away so abruptly that he finds his back against the tree on the other side of the sidewalk, his arms reaching behind it to hold on to try to restrain himself to stay back. He’s panting, he realizes, which is strange considering he doesn’t need to breathe; it is like his body is trying to eject the scent of the boy’s blood from his lungs. His fingers dig into the bark of the tree so he does not run forward. He blinks several times into the darkness, trying to focus again, watching the fantasies he conjured thin and fade until they’ve disappeared.

Now all he sees is the boy lying on the park bench, asleep in the moonlight.

Taehyung has lingered these past few nights to keep him safe, but he will always be the most dangerous thing around him.

He stays where he is.

After what is most likely an entire hour, he finds enough reassurance in himself that he can loosen his grip on the tree and relax in the shadows. He hesitantly sniffs the air, and he smells the boy’s blood immediately. But nothing in him changes. He wants and he yearns and he indulges for just a second the thought of what the scent must be like on his tongue, but he stays where he is, in control.

He wishes he could talk about it. About what this means, that, to him, someone smells different than all the others. But he and Jimin aren’t speaking at the moment, and he, for some reason, wants to keep this boy just to himself. He doesn’t want anyone to know about him, even if they are his beloved friends who he trusts with everything in him. He doesn’t want to keep him from only his friends; he wishes he could keep the boy away from everything, and he doesn’t know why, and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

So he stays where he is, in the shadows of the park, watching him sleep until daylight grows nearer.

When the sky starts to show its first traces of lightening, Taehyung hesitantly steps closer. He pauses and takes a deep breath. The scent of his blood briefly clouds him in the way blood always does, but not dangerously so. He breathes out. When he sees he is still in control, he steps closer again. He is completely silent, only heard through the rustle of the fabric of his clothes when the wind blows.

He stands in front of the boy’s sleeping form. He hesitates to make sure he will not hurt him. He knows that he never, ever could, but he is so confused about everything that has been occurring lately that maybe he does not know himself as fully as he previously thought.

He crouches down again, so they would be eye-level if the boy’s eyes were open.

But they are not; his pretty eyelashes are resting along his waterline. Taehyung never noticed how delicate the skin of one’s eyelids is until he sees it on the boy. He never noticed the way one’s top and bottom eyelashes nuzzle together when asleep.

Different parts of the boy’s skin are pink from the cold, and it will only get worse from here as the season deepens. Taehyung worries.

Slowly and carefully, he reaches a hand out. He gently moves a lock of the boy’s hair aside. Something in him stutters feeling the silky strand, getting to touch the boy for the first time, even if it is just his hair. He gently sets it down on his temple. He still feels the sensation on his fingers when he pulls his hand away.

“Why do I care for you so much?” he whispers, the words holding shape in the cold between them. His eyes travel around the boy’s face for a few seconds more. Those seconds turn into an hour, because he finally notices the sting against his skin from the rising sun. He finally hears the sounds of the city reappear as those who live there awaken, because he has been so focused on the quiet breaths as the boy still sleeps.

He rises to his feet again. He continues to linger for several more minutes, because he is at war with himself to find the will to walk away. He knows he must escape before the sun is fully out, but it is still several minutes until he finally walks away, for both of their sakes.

Still, with every step he takes back towards his manor, he looks over his shoulder until he can see the boy no more.

Chapter Text

Taehyung had been so lost in thought on his walk home that he makes the mistake of returning to the manor through the front door rather than his own private entrance. Almost immediately upon entering, Baekhyun is beside him. Taehyung doesn’t even bother taking his shoes or his coat off, not wanting Baekhyun to find any familiarity or casualness in his stay. Taehyung thinks that immediately following their departure, he is going to start his work with Namjoon to make his work no longer take place at his home.

“You were out for a while,” Baekhyun says.

Despite its weak strength, Taehyung knows Baekhyun heard the growl in his throat. His fingers curl into fists, then he forces himself to straighten them out so he does not show any emotion. He does not know where Baekhyun developed this familiarity with him to make a comment like that, but he really, really does not like it. But he doesn’t say anything, just continues walking to his living quarters. Baekhyun, of course, walks beside him.

“What do you do when you go out?”

“That is none of your concern,” Taehyung says. He doesn’t snap it like he wants to, he just speaks with nothing in his tone.

But then he panics, because he doesn’t want it to entice Baekhyun. The mysteriousness of it might lead him to follow him when he goes out, but he doesn’t want to give information about himself away – no matter how inconsequential. He doesn’t want Baekhyun to think he is interested in talking or that he has any access to any part of him.

The boy, however, is more important than that. And for once, he is grateful for Baekhyun's presence, because he doesn’t have the ability to feel anything because of that terrifying realization. He is afraid that maybe he would say that about anything, that the boy is more important no matter what is on the other end of the sentence. He does not know why. He does not know what is happening, how this has become a part of him.

Succinctly and as disinterestedly as he can manage (which doesn’t even need to be faked), he says, “I go on walks.”

Thankfully, before anything can be said further, they arrive at the turn that leads to Taehyung’s living quarters – a hallway just like all the others, but with his own favorite paintings on the walls, some vases with flowers on the tables or shelves that lead the way. Baekhyun confidently turns with him, but Taehyung stops him with a firm hand. Even though saying he dislikes this man is putting it very lightly, it still hurts something in him when he watches Baekhyun react to how cold he is. He is reminded of it so often. “You are not welcome in this part of the manor.”

Baekhyun leans against the wall, looking at him with his head tilted to the side, a lock of hair curled over his forehead in a film star-esque manner that falls short because he lacks any of the charm needed to make it attractive. A smirk is on his face. “I think that if I were, you’d find that you’d always want to welcome me in.”

Taehyung is speechless. No one has ever dared to say anything that suggestive to him. It has always been clear what Baekhyun’s intentions are, but he has never been so bold. His smirk deepens from clearly catching Taehyung off guard.

“I think that if you make any more comments like that to me,” Taehyung says in return in an eerily calm tone, “you’d find that you will not be able to say anything anymore. Am I clear enough for you?”

Baekhyun does not look affected. He looks amused. Still, he says, “Crystal clear,” with that same disgusting smirk despite the obvious threat. He salutes to him, then he turns away and saunters back toward the guest wing of the manor.

Taehyung walks to his bedroom. He wonders if it has been too long since he’s exhibited who he once was. Who he believes he is beneath his apathy. Who he became in his periods of darkness.

He wonders if he should remind Baekhyun whose presence he is in. Or if he should continue to not care, to not be bothered by others, because maybe it is pitiful to care about something so inconsequential.

He walks into his bedroom, then to his walk-in closet to hang up his coat and take off his shoes. He relaxes in the sitting area of his bedroom, thinking of what he’ll do next. He peers out of the big windows, looking through the garden into the surrounding forest, and the sky beyond that. Daytime has arrived, but it is so overcast that it feels like an afterthought.

Taehyung settles back in his chair, not knowing what to do with himself. He never feels comfortable enough to nap when guests are here, even if he would be able to tell when they are making their way to him from across the house. Still, it is not an option for him right now. It took him decades to be comfortable enough to sleep in the same house as his friends, so he is certainly not going to do that with Baekhyun here.

He perks up when he remembers his bag of books he got the other evening. He did not unpack it yet, so he does so now. He retrieves his bag from his closet, then he begins taking the books out. He arranges them in a small, neat pile on the coffee table. He then reads the backs of each one to decide what he will make his way through first – historical fiction (which is always quite funny to read, because more often than not, he was there), literary fiction, high fantasy, a cozy mystery, or a nonfiction book on different kinds of moss. He then arranges them in a pile of the order he would like to read them.

He’s aware of what he is doing. Trying to find a distraction. Trying to occupy his mind to take his thoughts away from the strange anxiety that’s forming inside of him, from the swirling thoughts about the boy in the park. Wondering what he’s doing right now, wondering what he does during the days when Taehyung is unable to watch him, because he cannot follow him. With the cold seasons approaching, the sun is out so rarely that he is usually able to withstand the weak light that is able to filter through the thick clouds, so he is often given the perfect setting to follow him. However, his friends have not held themselves back from voicing their suspicions and asking for what reason he has been out during the daytime, because it is a rare occurrence, and a very stupid one as well, since he really should not be outside during the day. In addition to not knowing how to skirt their curiosity, he is often needed and called upon when guests are at the manor. He can’t dedicate all of his time to this like he would like to.

Maybe he should just– no. He can’t. He has to be here, especially when it is possible he would be followed. Baekhyun would have to be quite stupid to follow him in the daylight, since he has not built up near the same tolerance to the sun as Taehyung has. But Baekhyun is stupid, as well as unyielding, and Taehyung would not be surprised if he came after him.

But maybe– Taehyung shakes his head to whisk the thought away and opens the cover of his book.

Maybe when he returns to the bookshop later in the week, he can at least track the boy’s scent while he is out, since he will not be at the park to sleep yet. Taehyung can find the places he frequents when he is awake. He can see where he goes and find out if the places okay, if they’re safe. Maybe he can learn some more about him. Then he isn’t left to wonder or worry like he is doing more and more. He is usually so disciplined at controlling his thoughts, but these ones are so sneaky and slip away from his grasp so easily.

Maybe he can go to the bookshop now. It’s not his usual day that he goes, but he is one book down from the number he always gets to last him through the week, since he left one of them with the boy when he first gave him money. It is very cloudy too, so when he bundles up the way humans do, so much of his skin will be covered. Everything else will only be a slight discomfort, nothing unmanageable.

He sets his book back on the coffee table, and he stands to go back to his closet. He slips on his coat and his shoes again, then checks that he has money in his wallet.

He steps out onto his private veranda. He stays in the same spot for several seconds, letting himself feel the sunlight to see if he will be okay. He only feels an annoying sensation on the skin that is exposed, nothing like the danger he faces in the hot-weathered months if allowing the light to touch him.

He looks around to make sure none of his guests are outside. All he sees is the empty garden and the vast manor grounds. All he hears is silence, not even the whistle of wind. He does not hesitate in case anyone might see; he rushes through his garden, and across the forest. He is back to the city before a mere minute has even passed.

What am I even doing? he thinks to himself. A human? What is the end goal in this? He does not know. He knows he will have to think more about it at some point, but he continues to put it off for now. He lets his thoughts form into conjurations of the sleeping boy, rather than ones figuring out why they are there.

The paint-chipped, rotting bench comes into view. Taehyung notices that the light that is meant to shine above it isn’t merely burnt out, but it has been broken, as if someone had thrown a rock at it to damage it. He wonders if this was done by the boy. He spots shards of glass around its pole. Now that he thinks about it, it was not until he found the boy sleeping on the bench that the light was no longer shining. Taehyung has walked past this bench again and again nearly every single night for entire decades. He has seen the bench with fresh paint, has noticed when it was tagged with graffiti, then painted over again. He has seen it empty for so long that he stopped noticing it, becoming only an overlooked fixture shining under the warm park lights. Then one day, there was a boy lying in the darkness.

He inspects the bench in case he may have left a note behind now, but there is nothing showing he was there except for his scent – thicker here than in the rest of the park, since he has been here for hours each night. It is as if his scent has begun to soak into the soft ridges of the wood. Taehyung keeps his hands in his coat pockets to keep himself from breaking off a piece of the bench to take home with him. An itch on his face requires his attention though so he must take his hand out of his pocket, then his fingers casually slide along the surface and, oh, a chipping piece of paint snags on his fingertips. He peels it off and drops it in his pocket, then he continues walking as if he can walk away from his own shame.

He follows the boy’s scent through the park as if it were intentionally left behind just for him, a line on a map that he was given to follow. It gets fainter the farther away he gets from his bench, but his blood still stands out from everything else around him. Even when Taehyung passes other humans, brushes shoulders with them, has the scent of their blood right beside him, it does not compare to the boy’s. His is stronger; it calls to him more than all of the humans that are right beside him.

The trail of it leads him through the park, along the same path he takes himself during his endless nights of walking alone. He notices that walking this way, where their footsteps have overlapped, has made their two scents entangle faintly together. He himself doesn’t have that much of a scent. His blood is not enticing, since it is not meant for taking, but there is still something to it. Nothing like the warm richness of the boy’s, but enough that it clings to it. Cinnamon rolls with icing on top. A knitted scarf with tassels at the ends. Or, really, a blooming flower with thorns clinging to its stems.

He exits the park and turns to his right, getting swallowed up by the city street. Even here, he barely needs to sniff the air because the scent almost comes to him rather than needing to search for it. He turns left at a crosswalk, then follows that way for a couple of blocks. He does not even notice anything or anyone he is passing. He knows he should keep an eye on the sky in case he needs protection from the sun, but the thought is so fleeting he barely had time to notice it. All he is focused on is keeping a hold of the boy’s smell. It has become fainter when mixed with all of the scents that invade the busy city streets. There are humans and restaurants and cafés and overfilled garbage cans on the sidewalks, not to mention the things that take place in the alleys. Still, the boy’s scent resides under all of that, easily distinguishable.

He crosses the street when he is meant to, then he stops in the middle of the sidewalk, because the scent is cut off. It has led him to the door of a gym. He sees humans exercising on various machines through the front windows, a fitness class taking place at the very back. He finds it odd, but he supposes he has never seen what the boy looks like beneath his layered clothes.

He stands outside, waiting for someone to come or go. A woman wearing tight workout gear leaves the gym and holds the door open for him, allowing him to enter as her eyes very obviously linger on him, as do most humans’. When he steps inside, his stomach churns from the scents he is hit with. The smell of humans sweating has never been appealing, but, at one time, having them all so gathered and concentrated in one place would have put him in a frenzy. Now, when he is so enraptured by one scent in particular, it makes him nauseous.

He peers out into the main area of the gym, but so much of it is shielded by the wall behind the front desk where others are scanning their membership cards to be allowed through.

Taehyung does not have a membership card, of course, nor does he wish to sign up for one and waste any time on his search. He walks right past the front desk to get through, ignoring the workers calling out for him to scan his card first. He continues forward and looks around, noticing that there are many workout machines he has never seen before and does not know the use of. He also realizes he has never set foot in a gym before. They certainly did not exist in his human years, and he had no use for them when they started popping up many, many years later.

He continues to scope out the many machines and the area of free weights. He even peeks into a few of the fitness classes, but he does not spot the boy anywhere. He weaves through the machines, looking out of place in his formal clothes among the humans who are dressed for exercising. He feels their eyes on him, either for his beauty or the way he stands out. None of the machines or any spot in the main area of the gym at all has his scent near them. He turns back to retrace his steps from the beginning, continuing to ignore the workers trying to engage with him. He detects a trace of his scent again, and he follows it into a different direction – the locker room.

One half of the space is rows of lockers, the other a bathroom. No one is in either area at the moment, leaving him to freely act a little insane as he sniffs the air like an animal to let it lead him.

And it does, to one of the empty shower stalls across the room. It clicks that the boy must have a gym membership that he uses to shower. Taehyung recalls now that he looked cleaner the last time he saw him, and he hopes that maybe this is something he used the money he gave him on.

Pleased at finding out that this is one of his frequent stops – and a nice one too: hot water to let rain down onto him as the days get colder – Taehyung walks out of the gym. He ignores the things that the front desk workers are saying to him, sounding more like irritating buzzing flies than anything important.

He steps back outside. He takes a deep breath. He picks up on the end of his scent again, and he allows it to lead him down the street. He does not think about how he is able to pick out one single thread of a scent amidst the thousands that walk these streets.

He finds that the boy sometimes stops at a fastfood chain restaurant and always sits in the same corner booth, farthest away from the ordering counter. He follows his scent to one of the city’s libraries, where it is particularly strong. He has always known libraries to be adequate resources and places of warmth and kindness for people needing either, and he makes a mental note to make a large donation to this library in particular. He learns that he sometimes stops at a certain convenience store as well. On his way there, Taehyung also finds that the boy’s scent is particularly strong in a few alleys. He does not know how to interpret that, and therefore thinks the worst when he lets his imagination loose.

He spends the rest of the entire day wandering, searching for his scent in places he might have missed, but those places seem like his only haunts – at least the ones visited enough to leave a ghost of him behind. By the time Taehyung returns back to the park, it is evening. There has been a break in the clouds, allowing the sky to breathe and show the colors of the sunset. Oranges and reds put on a show above him, but he is too occupied by his thoughts to notice.

He was intending on going home. The odd structure of the day has thrown off his routine, so he fails to realize it will soon be time for the boy to return to the park to sleep. He only realizes so when he skitters to a panicked stop, because he is in front of the boy. He flinches back, his eyes going wide. His heart does not beat, but he could swear it pounds in his chest. They have nearly run into each other because of Taehyung’s carelessness as he allowed himself to get lost in his head.

Taehyung does not know what to do. He does not know what to say. The boy is looking at him. He is looking at him. Dark, dark eyes. Dark like a summer night, dark like a warm cup of fresh coffee, dark like the blissful moments before falling into a dream. Nothing like the darkness of his own. The park lights have not flickered on, but Taehyung can somehow see light sparkling in those tired eyes. They are looking right at him. They are looking into his eyes. The boy is in front of him, seeing him.

No, Taehyung thinks. He feels it. It has started in his fingertips. It travels up his arms, along his veins, curling closer and closer inward. No, no, not right now. He feels it in his chest. His knees still ache from the last time it happened, when he tore himself apart in the shower. He always tries to think of it as someone else, something else doing this to him. An appearance of desperation, of grief, of something that visits him on any whim. But he knows it is not that. It is only himself, only what lives inside of him that unfurls at any opportunity when he is able to be caught off guard. He feels it closing in, wrapping its hand around his throat, reaching into his chest where it resides. That pain, the darkness, the sorrow that has made a home for itself there for reasons he does not know.

But then it is no longer there, because he hears, “Um, s-sorry,” the words quiet and nervous from almost running into a strange man. The boy quickly steps around him and continues walking.

His voice.

He heard his voice. It wasn’t truly his voice, because the words hovered below his vocal cords. But it was something. He heard his voice, and it was directed at him. And it was enough to pull him away from the clutches of his sorrow, so easily Taehyung wonders if he was imagining it creeping up on him.

Belatedly, he turns around. Extremely awkwardly, even to his own ears, he calls “It’s okay!” He cringes right after, his face scrunching up for a moment. It is even more uncomfortable because the boy is already several feet away. He turns and looks at him over his shoulders. His eyebrows are furrowed as he peers at him strangely. “Um, it is okay,” Taehyung continues. “It was my fault.”

“Uh… okay…” the boy says. His eyes dart away, then back to him. Then he turns away from him and continues walking in the direction of his usual bench.

Taehyung is not sure what to do now that they have interacted, and he is someone the boy will most likely be able to recall in his mind, at least temporarily. Taehyung stands aimlessly in the middle of the sidewalk, then he quickly begins walking again, in case the boy turns and sees him again. He walks a considerable distance through the park, disappearing from view for a while before he turns around and makes his way back in that direction. He goes to the bridge that reaches across the calm river where he has spent much of his time before. Now, though, he does not watch the still water or the way the skyscraper lights that peek over the trees reflect on its surface. He leans against the stone ledge, and he watches the boy across the way, keeping an eye on him from here, where he himself remains unseen.

Unlike yesterday night, the boy is not suspiciously looking around himself, trying to spot who might be watching him. Taehyung is grateful for it, because he has been so regretful that he has instilled him with suspicion and unease.

Instead, what might be worse, the boy just sits there. He looks down at his hands in his lap. He is not fidgeting, not moving. He barely seems aware of his surroundings. He just sits there, looking defeated, lost to the world.

Taehyung’s heart – or whatever might have replaced it – aches in a way it never has. He has done many things in his life. He has known for centuries that he is not a good man. There are many ended lives, torn apart villages, historical records that are proof of that. He has done even worse things that he does not remember – decades of life that are lost to him, with only the remains of what he has done clinging to him to show him what a monster he is deep down. He has felt helpless and hopeless, both from seeing who he is time and time again, and from the pain that has used his body as its home and makes itself known in times he cannot ignore that it is there, when he falls to his knees and begs and pleads knowing there is nothing and no one listening, or when the pain is so strong that all he can do is sit there and allow it to drown him.

None of that compares to how it feels to watch the boy there, sitting still, looking helpless and hopeless himself. Taehyung notices that the people who walk past him don’t even spare him a glance, even when he is radiating a despair so strong that Taehyung can feel it from so far away. The boy is just a part of the invisible population, overlooked and unseen. He watches others walk past, and he is treated as if he is not there. He watches every person ignore his presence, when they nod their heads or say hello when passing others. Taehyung is sure this isn’t anything new. He can feel his loneliness now that he notices it is there.

He wishes there were a way to show that he is not alone. To show that he is seen, that someone knows he exists, that someone cares about him. He knows that there is not a way to do that, though, without instilling more paranoia. There is no way to somehow ease the many suspicions that would arise as to why a clearly wealthy and attractive man might take a sudden interest in a homeless man. Taehyung knows there are many implications behind that scenario, and nothing could make it not come off terribly.

The sun sets without him realizing it. His eyes have never strayed from the boy, but he watched him, unseeing, trying to think of any way he can do something about any of this. The next time he blinks, the sky is dark and the streetlamps have flickered on. And the boy is still sitting up, but his head is hanging forward. He has fallen asleep like that. Taehyung’s chest continues to ache.

Taehyung walks down the curve of the bridge. The old cobblestones give way to weathered cement that he has walked along since it was first laid. He passes familiar trees he has seen in each season, empty of their leaves for now. They have grown and changed, have partially died and have been reborn anew, and they have watched him in return, seeing that he has stayed exactly the same.

He approaches the boy. He really is asleep, with his head hanging forward so uncomfortably, his hands shoved into his hoodie pocket. Taehyung sighs as if it could alleviate some of the heaviness he feels for him. His breath is visible in front of him, which isn’t uncommon when he is so cold, but the cloud of fog is even denser with the cold temperature that now resides in the night.

Taehyung hesitates. The boy’s neck will ache so horribly if left like this.

As lightly as he can, Taehyung places his hands on his shoulders. He pauses to make sure the boy does not stir. He lets his hands slowly press down harder until they are resting on him. He keeps his lips pressed tightly together to not make a sound at how warm he feels, even through his layers of clothes, even when they are both so cold in the night. It makes him remember that his own coldness could wake him if he were to touch him for too long, so he starts to gently apply pressure on his shoulders. It is difficult and scary when the boy’s head is hanging, because he cannot see if he is going to wake. All he can listen for is his breathing, but it is hard to place it over the way Taehyung is nearly panting despite not needing the breath. He does not falter though, and he pushes him down and down, as slow as he can so it does not feel like he is falling. He lets out a deep sigh in relief when he has the boy lying on his side. He freezes when he begins to move, ready to dart away if needed. But the boy just lift his legs onto the bench, as if he is adjusting himself comfortably in his sleep.

When Taehyung is certain he is still unconscious, he takes his backpack from the ground. The other times he has watched the boy, he has had his backpack securely in his hold even as he sleeps. It was thrown to the ground so carelessly as if it did not matter if it was taken from him. Taehyung knows what it looks like when apathy and numbness begin to take over.

He does not think of it for now and quietly unzips his bag. He notices that nothing was carelessly thrown in. It is all organized in the different pockets, intentionally placed with the fleece blanket neatly rolled up rather than stuffed inside. He pulls it out, and he carefully spreads it out over him. In his sleep, the boy hums at the sudden warmth. The ache in Taehyung’s chest lessens as the corner of his lips twitches.

He stands there watching over him. The way his hair falls in such defined, delicate waves. The way the beauty mark beneath his lips stands out to him so much, but blends right into his features when he looks away from it.

He steps back to the other side of the sidewalk and leans against the tree there, still watching over him. If he is too close, he almost falls into a trance, and he wants to be able to be aware of his surroundings. He intently listens to every single thing within a mile radius as he watches the boy. It is why he goes on intense alert when he hears something that doesn’t fit into the city’s normal middle-of-the-night sounds.

There are footsteps. Three pairs of them.

They are clumsy, but not with the same irregularity that comes with intoxication. Rather the result of a carelessness that arises from an inflated sense of self.

Taehyung can almost feel his pupils dilate.

His body stiffens. His gaze intensifies as he watches a group of three men come into view.

Each of them is wearing all black. Two of them are around Taehyung’s height, the third one shorter. They are roughly the same in build as each other and as Taehyung – although Taehyung’s body, despite looking quite sturdy, does not reflect the true extent of his strength.

He cannot tell any more of what the men look like. One is wearing a black knitted hat, while the other two have their hoods pulled up, more to protect themselves from the cold rather than hide their features. Taehyung tracks every movement they make as he remains completely still in the shadows. Their presence is loud enough that even if Taehyung’s predatory instincts had not been triggered, they still would not have noticed him. They are rowdy, with big movements and silent teasing as they push each other around while they walk through the park.

Then they slow to a stop several feet away when they see the boy on the bench. They all glance at each other, communicating something silently. They start to approach the boy in his vulnerable sleep.

Before any of them can even blink, Taehyung has two of the men by their throats. Their backs are shoved against the tree whose shadow he stands in. He has taken them so suddenly, his grip on their necks so tight they could not even make a sound. The third one, who he sensed was the most cowardly, runs away without hesitating. He does not even make a noise as he does so, as if it has been scared out of him. Taehyung listens for if his footsteps might wake the boy, then he tightens his grip on the other two men’s throats until all there is is their weak attempt at gasping for air as they try to fight against his immovable strength.

“I am going to let go,” Taehyung whispers to them, the words low and menacing. “And you are going to leave. You are going to leave the park and not make a sound, and you are not going to come back. Do you understand?”

One of the men shakily nods. At least Taehyung thinks he does; it could have been the way he is trembling as his face turns purple. Taehyung lets go of their necks, and they drop to the ground, collapsing to their knees as they gasp for air. Taehyung had not even realized he was holding them up. He knows their necks will be bruised in the shape of his hands. He watches them, standing completely still in the shadows.

They do not leave like he told them to.

They glance at each other from their heap on the ground. They communicate silently again, but their intention is clear when they boldly stand and face the cruel, moralless vampire. They do not know the humanity he lacks. They do not know what he would do to protect who he has sworn to protect. They do not know that he could do much worse than killing them. How their deaths would not be afforded even a second thought in his mind.

So feeble and naïve they advance on Taehyung. He has them across the park by a hold on their hair before they even have a second to scream. He shoves them out into the street, noticing the patches of red on their scalp with ripped handfuls of hair falling to the ground like autumn leaves. They try to scurry away from him with such terror on their faces. It brings them deeper into the middle of the street, not a thought spared that a car might come. Taehyung stalks into the street toward them, almost laughing at the horror in their expressions.

“You could have listened,” he says. His voice sounds terrifying even to himself. “And yet…” He steps closer, finally laughing at the way they fall over themselves, their palms growing bloody as they scrape across the pavement. His laughter only increases their panic, unable to even try to escape anymore.

“I will be watching you,” Taehyung says. He steps closer. “I will be following you. And when you think you have gotten away, I will find you.”

One of the men finally pulls himself to his feet, looking weak and unsteady like a baby deer trying to walk for the first time. He attempts to pull his friend up by yanking on his hoodie. All while Taehyung just stands and watches. The other finally scrambles to his feet, and they run, tripping over themselves and each other. They constantly look behind them to see if he is still there, and Taehyung feels powerful from the look of fear on their faces. He doesn’t mean what he said; he does not care about them enough to spend any more of his time on them if not necessary, but they do not know that. He remains standing there until they are out of sight. Then he turns and disappears back into the park, rushing to the boy to make sure he is okay.

And as if nothing happened, he is still sound asleep on the bench just as he left him.

Taehyung does not care if the men tell everybody what they experienced. He doesn’t care if the secret of his kind becomes public, he doesn’t care if his manor is stormed and burned and a hunt is set out for him, he doesn’t care what he has to do to any human or living creature at all. He will protect the boy. He would slam people into the ground, make them unrecognizable, tear them apart and leave their bodies as a warning, he would do anything to keep the boy from harm. He would burn the world down if that is what it takes; he would do it only to provide the boy with warmth.

He stays on the other side of the sidewalk, a few feet away as he watches him. He does not get too close, nor does he breathe in the scent of his blood, even though he desperately wants to. He stays alert, tracking every sound around him, occasionally taking a cursory scan through the park to be sure it is still only the two of them here.

He only approaches him when the morning comes, when it is his last chance to be close to him before he wakes. He is becoming greedier and greedier, and he’s nervous about where it will eventually lead him.

Like the night before, his fingers meet his wind-tousled waves, following their shape as delicately as he can muster. He is bolder this time though. He is unable to stop himself from brushing his fingers through his hair, just once. The action makes the boy nuzzle his cheek against his own arm in his sleep. Something in Taehyung awakens. He wants to fall to his knees in the way he does when he despairs, but the sorrow is not there.

He does not take another chance. He is grateful for the small one he was given.

“I will figure something out,” he whispers to him, for both of them.

He uses all of his strength to walk away.

He is not strong enough to stray too far yet though, and only goes to his spot on the bridge across the park. He is so weak for him. He tells himself it is because he has been so blindsided that he has not given himself the time to think clearly again. He thinks it is a lie, but he is not even certain about that. He does not know the meaning behind any of this. Has he been this weak-willed this entire time?

An hour later, once the birds begin to sing their morning song again, it is accompanied with a change in the way the boy’s heart beats. It moves from a gentle pace to something slightly quicker. With it, his breathing changes its pattern. From all the way across the park, Taehyung watches his eyes blink open. He squints against the rising light, then he immediately sits up and starts to pack his things away.

Taehyung aches even more thinking about how he does not have the simple luxury of slowly waking up. It is taken for granted: laying in bed to adjust to being awake, then sitting up and stretching, taking things slowly as half-forgotten dreams are left behind. Instead, he has to wake up immediately and pack his things to leave, because he can’t linger and indulge himself on a park bench in public.

A mere thirty seconds after waking, he is already standing and walking through the park – most likely off to the gym to shower. Taehyung wishes he could look at him as he walks past, but he doesn’t want to take chances in case the boy were to recognize him, especially when he would be strangely wearing the same clothes as the night before.

So he turns away and looks at the calm ripples of the river below him. And when the boy walks past, only inches away, he takes a deep breath in through his nose. He is greedy in allowing the scent of his blood to take over him. The act of smelling him almost feels like something solid, something he can reach out and grab because of how full it is. He tightens his grip on the stone ledge of the bridge as his teeth begin to emerge into fangs. He can’t even remember the last time his restraint and control were tested. Even when humans come to the manor and offer themselves up, he feeds without caring about the act itself or the taste in his mouth; he does it only to subdue his thirst. It has been a few days since he last fed, so he should soon, even though his response to the boy’s smell would be the same if he’d just fed an hour ago.

When the boy has crossed the bridge, Taehyung turns and watches him. He keeps an eye on him as he walks through the park, then when he waits for his turn to cross the street. His shoulders are curled in, and he rubs his eyes with his knuckles, still clearly sleepy.

Before Taehyung even realizes what he is doing, he follows after him. He recklessly speeds his steps to an inhuman pace so he can cross the street at the same time as him, knowing that if humans were to see, they would find a way to naturally rationalize it somehow like they often do when seeing something supernatural.

He trails behind the boy while he crosses the street and goes in the direction Taehyung anticipated, toward the gym. He wonders how long he spends there. If he lingers in the shower and takes his time, or if he does everything quickly so he isn’t suspicious and won’t risk being kicked out. He could extend his time there by working out, even if just halfheartedly to kill the time and enjoy the shelter, so Taehyung wonders why he doesn’t. Maybe because he does not have workout clothes and it is not really possible to workout comfortably in jeans and shoes with holes in them, and he doesn’t have a way to wash them either. Taehyung wonders if he should get some workout clothes for him, or something for one of the laundromats in the city that have reloadable cards rather than requiring coins.

He wonders why he is wondering at all.

He only finally realizes what he is doing when the boy opens the door to the gym and disappears inside. Taehyung blinks and stands up straighter, like he’s waking from sleepwalking. He stands in the middle of the busy sidewalk as the sea of people part and walk around him.

He is taking it too far. He knows that he is. He is letting his strange obsession get out of hand. He is allowing it to run loose, but he cannot find it in him to wrangle it in. It is warranted, he tells himself. He is doing a good thing, he tries to convince himself. He knows it is untrue.

Embarrassed, which is an unfamiliar feeling for him, he turns around and walks back toward the park to return to the manor. He is taking it too far. Because, again, what is the end goal here? Why is he doing this? This thing that he is doing should not extend beyond watching over him at night to make sure he is okay; he shouldn’t be stalking him and following him in the daytime when he is most likely safe the whole time – especially since he now knows the places he frequents and that they are okay (except for the alleys, which he continues to not ruminate on). He shouldn’t even care at all about whether this human is safe or not! But he does, and doing what is necessary in the night is just something he has accepted. But all of this bleeding into the day? If he allows himself to have this, he does not know what he will want next. And whatever that is, it is not something he can have.

He will just remain the boy’s shadow as long as he can, watching over him in the night.

Lost in thought, he is back at the manor before he even realizes he has been walking this long. He avoids the view of the front windows even though he knows the others can hear him if they were listening, and he gets swallowed up by the path through the garden. It shields him from view until he reaches his private veranda, and he enters his bedroom. He sighs when out of the sun. He did not realize it was bothering him. It has been cloudy, but he still did spend several hours out in the daytime. It feels like a cool relief when the irritation against his skin ebbs away.

Despite entering the manor privately, his presence was not undetected. He jumps when he finds Jimin suddenly in front of him. His arms are crossed, his face expressionless, his bubblegum pink hair faded a few shades from its usual vibrancy.

Jimin has been vigilant in ensuring the two of them do not interact, so his sudden appearance is confusing. As is his, “Where have you been?”

“On a walk,” Taehyung answers partially truthfully.

“It’s daytime out now.”

Taehyung shrugs. “Long walk.”

Even though Jimin is his very best friend in the world, he wants to keep the boy from him. He wants to keep him from anybody. He wishes he could bring him home and not let him leave without him by his side. That could never be attainable though, so he keeps him to himself in the ways that he can.

He side steps Jimin and goes to his closet. He hangs up his coat then pulls off his shoes, carefully lining them up beside the others. Jimin follows him into the closet. “You’ve been on ‘long walks’ for days now,” he says. “You have never stayed out this late, or left as early as you have been.”

Taehyung’s jaw ticks. He wants to tell Jimin that he is not his mother, but a negative interaction is not a good idea after no interaction. He walks around him again to leave his closet. He intends on saying nothing, but something pops in his head as he straightens up his bedroom despite it being completely tidy like always.

“You told me about the newborn vampire that has been harming people,” he says. He had forgotten that it was a problem. It is not exactly a problem to him, because he does not care, but he would rather not have more rabid vampires running around, because it might eventually lead to them running to him. Or Namjoon, more accurately, but it still affects his life in a way he does not want. “I have been looking into it. No luck because they have been vigilant.” Which could be true, considering he hasn’t gotten word of anything happening with that, but he assumes they are still causing problems.

“Oh, good,” Jimin says, easily believing the lie. Taehyung should start looking into that. It is not like they have laws or a secret vampire government or something silly like that; he (and most other vampires) just try to do what they can – at least the ones that aren’t bad, which could really just be those who live in his household. There is a difference between feeding from a human and draining them dry and leaving their bodies dropped around the city for others to discover and come to their own conclusions. Whether for their own or humans’ protection, anyone who acts recklessly should be stopped, because it is quite irritating.

“When’s the last time you fed?” Jimin asks, following him around the bedroom. A glance at himself in the mirror shows why he asked. His eyes are fading into a red hue, and the skin around them is slowly turning black, his veins more prominent too.

“A few days ago I think.” He is not entirely sure really. He has been too preoccupied with the boy that he forgot about it. He wonders if that is why he has had such a response to the boy’s scent, but he knows it is not actually that. Even if he fed a few seconds prior, he knows he would feel like a vulnerable newborn vampire if given only the tail end of his scent.

“Tae,” Jimin says, definitely sounding like his mother now. Well, a mother. “I know you’re a strong, ancient vampire,” a snort from Taehyung, “but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to feed every day. You can tolerate days without it, but it’s not good for you. You still have to take care of yourself.”

“Well, there are no humans here right now because of the newborn we have, so I can go another day without feeding and will find someone tomorrow.”

“We have blood bags,” Jimin says. “Yoongi went and got some to prepare for the guests being here since humans won’t be allowed over.”

Taehyung wishes they could always do this, but he knows it is not sustainable. He does not like stealing blood bags from hospitals, because they are taking them from humans who need them in a more important, ethical way. With how many vampires live here and how often they need to feed, they would be taking a lot. The humans will continue to come to the manor anyway, so they might as well give everyone what they want. For now, though, the outcome of a human coming here would not give anyone what they want except for the newborn – and maybe those whose care he is in; he has never been entirely certain about Baekhyun’s clan and their values.

“I will go retrieve some then,” Taehyung says. He does not want to linger around Jimin. That thought hurts him, but it hurts less than the tense air around them being together does. Jimin’s care and concern that he feeds is enough for him to hold onto for now.

Jimin doesn’t respond or say any more. He leaves his bedroom, and by the time Taehyung does the same only a few moments later, Jimin is no longer in his wing of the manor.

Taehyung sighs. There is too much taking place in his life at the moment, when it is usually a picture of relative ease. Usually he spends time with his friends and housemates during the day, or reads a book alone in his library, and at night he goes on his walks. That is what his days consist of, and the routine of it sometimes manages to distract him from the boredom of it all. The routine somehow mutes the observations of how every single day of his life for the last many, many years is the same.

The change in his routine should do an even better job at that, but it only manages to do the opposite and make it worse. His tiredness is at the forefront when so many different things are happening. There are strangers in his home. There is Baekhyun in his home. There is the feeling of being unable to lean on the person he always does when he is feeling overwhelmed, and instead feeling even worse when he is around him. There is this strange, confusing, interesting boy who is always at the edge of his thoughts, if not at the center like he is more often than not. There is not being able to stay close to him, having to wonder and worry and hope that he is okay instead of finding out for himself. The disruption in his routine is making him more tired rather than energizing him and adding something new to his life.

He doesn’t want to be here. In his manor or in his life, he doesn’t know. He just knows that he is tired, and he does not want to be here. It is a feeling that has been with him for so long that he thinks it is just the way his life is meant to be. Maybe his life isn’t meant to be here at all, if it is always a thought he has. Maybe it is a hint.

He walks down the wide halls of his living quarters, along the dark wood wainscotting and the art on the walls. He stays in the middle of the hall, out of reach from the shadowed window panes on the floor as the sun shines brightly for the first time in days. When the sun is out, it looks less as if fall is being subdued for winter to creep in, and more like the way autumn should look. Warm colors and golden light, rather than an endless expanse of grey that even mutes the colors too.

Almost as soon as Taehyung steps out of his personal living quarter’s bounds and into the manor’s foyer, the spot at his side is occupied.

“Hello there,” Baekhyun says. He is dressed in his usual overstated designer clothes with excessive jewelry on. He has been a guest at the manor many times, so Taehyung would think that he would have perhaps picked up on the types of things that appeal to him, since Baekhyun is immersed in his environment. Nothing about the manor or Taehyung himself gives off the hint that he is into such tackiness.

Taehyung ignores him. He is really, really not in the mood for this.

“Would you like to–”

“I have not fed in days,” Taehyung says. His voice is threatening without even intending for it to come out that way. “I suggest you leave, because I am a vampire much older than you can comprehend, and I have not had sustenance for days.”

“Well… I’m here,” Baekhyun says. The griminess is always in his voice because it is who he is. Taehyung has never liked Baekhyun, but he doesn’t know if this new hatred for him is from not feeding, from being kept from seeing the boy, or from what is happening now.

Taehyung halts. He turns to Baekhyun with his jaw tight. “What?”

“You need to feed,” Baekhyun says with a casual shrug. “Blood bags are fine, but not great. And I’m sure you know how satisfying vampire blood is. For both of us.” He has a smirk, and it gets even cockier when his eyebrow raises. Taehyung realizes he has a slit shaved into it, as if it gives him an air of rebelliousness. “Or don’t you know?”

Taehyung does not know, because they both know what it means to drink another vampire’s blood. How intimate it is, how possessive it is, how much it means. It is not merely an act, but a statement, a declaration. Taehyung does not expect Baekhyun to have any depth to his character or uphold the sanctity in anything, but to be so casual about this? It is unheard of for a vampire to allow another to drink from them – even sires and their fledglings. After the initial exchange needed to allow the human to live in death, Taehyung has never heard of a sire who has allowed their fledgling to drink from them. To even entertain the idea is mad, so for another grown vampire to so casually offer himself up to another… Taehyung is disgusted.

“It can mean whatever you want it to mean,” Baekhyun says coyly. Taehyung can see that he is interpreting his silence as him considering the offer, rather than being speechless. Not only is the act committed from a place of trust and affection so deep that even the most romantic poets and lovers could not skim the surface, there is a dynamic within it. A vampire offering himself up to another, allowing the other to drink from him – something that makes the one feeding sometimes lose their inhibitions... it puts them in the care of the vampire being fed from. At least that is how it should feel, but Taehyung does not think Baekhyun is capable of such complexity. He probably sees it as being in power, as ownership for dominance’s sake. Not a union of devotion, not having such a deep affection for another that they allow themself to be fed from, to be devoured.

Even if Baekhyun only sees it as a show of dominance and power and control as Taehyung suspects… To think that Taehyung would ever, ever be at another vampire’s mercy…

He has Baekhyun’s back against the wall with his hand on his throat before he even notices he has moved. The still life painting hanging on the wall is shaken from its spot and collides with a vase of flowers on a side table on its way to the floor, sending them both to the ground with a broken clamor.

Unlike the humans he has previously thrown around in the same manner, Baekhyun is strong. He fights back, trying to collide any of his limbs anywhere on Taehyung. He might as well be another human though. He clearly did not know the full extent of Taehyung’s strength. Like he said only moments ago, Baekhyun doesn’t truly understand how long his life has been.

He sees the fear in Baekhyun’s eyes when he realizes all of the fight he has in him is nothing compared to what Taehyung has. That even with all of his strength and energy, he is still stuck in his clutches. The fear spreads when Taehyung smiles. Taehyung cannot hold him by his throat until he suffocates, until his face turns purple like the humans he had by the throat previously. That doesn’t mean he is not without options.

His other hand travels up and grips onto Baekhyun’s dark hair, the strands with product that cracks and crumbles in his tight grasp. “I could just…” He tugs on his hair, only enough for him to jerk his head to the side a few centimeters. Baekhyun understands the implication. It wouldn’t take any effort at all for Taehyung to tug his head free from his neck.

Taehyung's hand trails down. It slides along his neck, across his collarbones, down his chest. The touch is light and slow the way a lover’s would be. “Or just…” He taps his chest, where his unbeating heart is. He presses down harder, enough for him to feel the pressure, enough that he might fear his chest will cave in. “Right here.” He could reach inside his chest and pull his cold heart out without even having to call on his strength. His life could be ended in the blink of an eye. With a flick of the wrist. “I think you are forgetting who I am,” he says again. Baekhyun’s pupils are dilated, his eyes dark with fear while Taehyung knows his own are crimson with craze. He is certain Baekhyun would be trembling if he had a nervous system that worked. “I think you are forgetting whose home you are in,” Taehyung continues. “I think you have forgotten what I am capable of – my whole life I have lived before this moment, before you even blinked into existence. And your existence could be ended in just a blink too. I think you would do well to remember who I am. Remember whose home you have been allowed into, and think before you speak.”

Baekhyun shakily nods. Taehyung squeezes his throat a touch harder for just a moment, as if to show how easily it can be crushed. He lets go, and Baekhyun drops to his feet. He leans against the wall to steady himself, not meeting Taehyung’s eyes.

Taehyung watches him try to gather himself. Watches him try to pretend it isn’t needed. Baekhyun brushes down his shirt, and walks away. He doesn’t rush away, doesn’t disappear. He calmly walks as if to show Taehyung that he did not shake him, that he is unbothered. More rage rushes through Taehyung, but he suppresses it. Once Baekhyun has turned the corner out of sight, he continues his way toward the kitchen.

Taehyung just wants to be left alone. He wants to be left to his own devices. He wants quiet solitude, or he wants to watch the boy who has captured his attention. These things seem unattainable at the moment though, so he will just have to bear it until their unwelcome guests leave and he can be alone again. Or as alone as it gets with five other people living here. They are not guests, though, and are his dear friends because being with them feels almost just as good as being alone, so their presence has always been welcome and never once draining.

Which is why when he walks into the kitchen and is greeted by Yoongi, his “hello” doesn’t have any unpleasantness to it. It is actually somewhat of a relief. He has not been around Yoongi very often lately, and his presence has always been a steady, quiet comfort. It is nice to feel after what has just occurred.

“How are you?” Taehyung asks. He opens the refrigerator and finds it stashed with blood bags. It looks as if they run a hospital themselves, but with six residents and several guests, it will not last them very long. He takes one for himself. He walks to the cabinet where they keep all of their mugs – the miscellany of them all shown through the glass-paned cabinet door. The chaotic gathering of them all is an accurate, chaotic reflection of those who have collected them all through the years.

He chooses his favorite mug – something beautifully handmade out of clay, shaped like a handheld version of a soup bowl. It is glazed a beautiful warm brown with some earthy-looking speckles in it. It shines under the light, and carved into the surface of it are leaves. There are swirling vines glazed different shades of dark green, with touches of gold in some spots that look like the sun shining onto them. He does not know how he acquired it, but it is his favorite and off-limits to the others.

Before he can empty the blood bag into his mug, Yoongi takes them from his hand. Taehyung watches him pour it into a pot on the stove, then he turns the fire on to gently warm it. He doesn’t protest Yoongi doing it for him, because he knows Yoongi enjoys doing what he can for others – especially where food is concerned. His options on that front are quite limited, so he takes the opportunity where he can.

“Over others being here,” he grumbles in response to his question as he stirs the liquid in the pot.

Taehyung wryly chuckles. “Trust me, I know.”

“Heard your exchange with Baekhyun,” Yoongi says. He smirks as he watches the deep red liquid, making sure it doesn’t start boiling and ruin the taste. Taehyung did not think of how the others could hear his outburst – and it is not even his only one as of late. But Yoongi assures him, “Everyone else is busy, so I’m probably the only one. Even though I wish everyone else heard him offer himself to you.” Yoongi sounds just as disgusted as Taehyung feels. Not because the act is revolting, but because it is when coming from Baekhyun so casually.

Yoongi and Hoseok have been together for decades, and Jimin's appearance only strengthened the bond that was there when they became a union of three and it was shared with another. And even the three mates have not breached that boundary – and most likely never will. It is not because they do not love deeply or have not fully committed their eternity to their lovers, but because feeding between vampires is not merely taboo; it is not even considered as an option. So for Baekhyun to offer when eternal mates haven’t even spoken of it? It is appalling.

“I have always seen that he has a lot of nerve and misplaced confidence,” Taehyung says, “but I never really realized how much.”

Yoongi pours the steaming liquid into Taehyung’s handmade mug. Before he hands it off, he opens their spice drawer. Taehyung watches as he sprinkles in some cinnamon, a touch of nutmeg, and tops it with star anise to let it slowly steep in and spread its spice. He finally hands it to Taehyung, who feels extremely touched. “Thank you,” he says sincerely. The warmth of the mug against his hands could almost make him cry. He could cry for a different reason when his cold touch banishes the heat a mere few seconds later. Still, the gesture from Yoongi is enough for some warmth to stick to him. He holds the mug by its handle to avoid transferring any more cold to the warm drink.

“How have you been lately?” he asks. Other than Jimin, it is not often that he spends time with his friends one-on-one. Although even that has disappeared as well…

Yoongi leans against the kitchen counter in a way of settling in, and Taehyung hops up onto the island across from him to sit there as he drinks his meal.

It is not often that he is in the kitchen either, since there is rarely a use for him to be here. It fits the aesthetics of the rest of the manor: dark wood, deep paint colors, moody lighting. There is exposed brick in some spots as easily-overlooked accents, and in other spots the walls are a rich burgundy. Sconces with flickering flames illuminate small areas from their spots on the walls, while the candle-lit chandelier does the same over the long wooden table that mostly goes unused other than the occasional holiday where they sit around the table together to drink blood from mugs or wine glasses like he is doing now. An island stretches across the kitchen with pendant lights hanging overhead, but even with different light sources, the kitchen remains moody and dim in a way he loves. Pointed arched windows overlook the elaborate gardens, still in half-bloom despite the grey sky and the cold temperatures that are bringing a low fog to the bottoms of the windows. Taehyung remembers the boy – he is not sure if he even leaves his mind to begin with – and hopes he is able to spend his day indoors.

“I should be asking you that,” Yoongi says. Even after having a rough go at life, Yoongi is always the picture of ease – maybe precisely for that reason. He is wearing black sweatpants with one of Hoseok’s t-shirts. His long hair falls wispy and beautifully down to his shoulders, while his sharp, feline eyes look at him assessingly, but with care and not suspicion. “Everyone else has been occupied with their own things they have going on. Except Jimin, because you’re usually his thing he has going on. But no one else has noticed how you’re acting differently. How you’re never home anymore because you stay out longer than your walks used to last.”

Taehyung looks down at the mug in his hands. He drags his finger along the rim of it, watches the candle flames flicker on the black surface. He doesn’t know what to tell Yoongi, but the actual truth is on the tip of his tongue.

Yoongi has always felt easy to confide in. Something about his calm, steady presence and the knowledge that he would never judge those he loves make it so easy to open up.

Taehyung swallows. “Please do not tell anyone,” he quietly asks of him, even though he knows he wouldn’t. Yoongi nods. Taehyung hesitates. “There is, um… someone.”

Yoongi tilts his head to the side, a lock of hair falling prettily from behind his ear. “Someone?”

“A human.”

Yoongi slowly nods, eyebrows shallowly furrowing – more as if he is pondering, rather than confused. “And what about this human?”

Taehyung wishes he knew. “I just… I don’t know. I’ve been… watching him. I have gathered that he is homeless, since he sleeps on a bench in the park every night. And when he does, I have been watching him… I don’t know why. And during the day, when I am here, I just think of him the entire day until it is time to go out again.” He feels breathless after allowing it to all spill out.

“I see,” Yoongi says. “And what do you think about when you watch him?”

Taehyung feels a little like he is being psychoanalyzed, but he doesn’t mind if it results in Yoongi telling him why he is being like this. “Sometimes I wonder about him. About what led him to this – to not having a place to go, or what he spends his days doing. Sometimes I just watch over him to make sure he can sleep safely. Sometimes I study him, looking at different parts of his face as he sleeps, because I haven’t been so close to a human in decades. Because I haven’t been so… so taken by anyone…” He swallows that thought down. “I just wonder about him, or I do not think about anything, and I just watch.”

“Do you want to turn him?” Yoongi asks.

Taehyung jerks back with the question, the blood sloshing around in his mug. “W-What?” he asks, shocked.

“Do you want to bite him and turn him?”

Taehyung looks around the kitchen, wide-eyed. “I don’t–it never crossed my mind. I do not see why I would. Why I would want to.”

Yoongi slowly nods again. “Do you want to talk to him?”

Yes. He never thought about sitting down and having a conversation with him, but he does now. He wants the boy to look at him and talk to him, and he wants to do the same back. He wants to know more about him, and know things because he is told them, not because he follows him around and figures them out himself without the boy even knowing he has given anything about himself away.

“I think so,” he says, even though Yoongi can surely detect the resolve hidden in the words.

“Seems like you have a crush.”

Taehyung sputters. He looks all around the kitchen as he makes an array of noises with different expressions on his face. Yoongi just silently laughs, a sweet smile on his face as his shoulders shake. “I do not have a crush,” Taehyung finally says. “That is absurd. Do you know how old I am? That would be ridiculous.”

Yoongi shrugs, continuing to laugh at his expense. “Being ancient has nothing to do with it.”

Taehyung scoffs. Ancient. “I do not have a crush. That is silly. Foolish. Preposterous.”

Yoongi shrugs again. Him being so flippant while suggesting something so daft is nonsense. “You can keep being a thesaurus to try to brush it off, but it seems like little Taehyungie has a crush.”

‘Little Taehyungie’ gets him to laugh, a loud and genuine one while the lines beside his eyes deepen to show proof that it didn’t used to be so rare of a sound. “Even if your misguided suggestion were correct, there is nothing to be done about it.”

“Why not?”

“Well, perhaps I have forgotten to tell you this, but I am a vampire.” Yoongi’s smile has always been a nice sight to see, especially when he is the one who made it appear. “And this human is a human.”

Yoongi once again shrugs and looks at him like he’s silly. “Okay? And?”

Taehyung looks at him like he’s silly. “So I’m a vampire and he’s a human?!”

Yoongi rolls his eyes. It warms Taehyung in the way it always does when he finds little testaments to how truly comfortable his friends are with him, because no others would ever try that. “You know vampire-human relationships happen, right? Maybe you’ve heard of them? Since we have the result of one literally living in our house?”

Taehyung goes silent, because he doesn’t have an argument for that. Namjoon and Seokjin have certainly worked out. Taehyung was there while it was happening, but he was not confided in very much. Seokjin only fully came into the picture for him when he was no longer a human, so Taehyung did not see the arc of their relationship or hear the struggles and hurdles they faced. He knows Namjoon would be happy to talk about it, but he doesn’t think he can tell anyone else about himself. He is sure that once he leaves the intimate warmth that resides in a kitchen when there with one other person, the regret will set in from even telling Yoongi.

“Well, maybe it is possible and works out for others sometimes,” he says, “but that is not an idea I would ever entertain.” And his mind will not change or waver on that. It is silly to even speak of when the boy does not know of his true existence; he only knows of a stranger who has given him supplies. It is absurd and invasive to think of turning the boy when there are many, many more steps to be taken before that idea is appropriately conceived of – and none of those steps will be taken.

He doesn’t know what that means and what it will mean when he continues to watch the boy, but further steps will not be taken by him. Yoongi can hear the resolve in his voice, so he doesn’t push.

Instead, Yoongi asks, “How are you feeling about, you know, life? About what you said the other week?”

Taehyung shrugs. Yoongi takes the empty mug from him and sets it on the counter. “Same, I suppose.” He watches Yoongi walk to the fridge to grab another blood bag. He pours it into the same pot from before, but he adds the spices as it warms up this time. Different ones from before, but Taehyung is too distracted by his thoughts to see or smell what they are. He does not want to think about how he is feeling. He does not want to think any more about himself, let alone talk about it, after conveying something so personal and frightening already.

Instead, he asks, “Um, how has Jimin been?” He is fidgeting with his hands in his lap. He doesn’t fidget, and he doesn’t say “um.” But he also doesn’t fight with his dearest friend or become infatuated with humans, so many things are off-kilter lately.

Yoongi sighs. He pours the warmed blood into Taehyung’s mug, and he hands it back to him. Taehyung hasn’t had this much blood in quite a while, and never in such an intentional way. Feeling full and feeling pleased and sated is new, and it’s nice. And the fact that it is from Yoongi makes it even nicer. Yoongi sighs again when he watches him take a sip. “He’s been… not great.”

Taehyung dryly swallows. He taps his finger against the mug, the touch against the ceramic making a quiet sound in the quiet kitchen. “I miss him,” he admits quietly. He hasn’t thought the words, but he has felt the meaning. He wonders if maybe some vampire lore is true, and some do have the power of compulsion, because it is just so easy to be vulnerable and small around Yoongi and not feel so scared to do so. He knows it is just because Yoongi can make anyone feel cared for even from a few steps away.

“He misses you too,” Yoongi says. “He’s not ready to talk about it yet though. Or talk to you, really. He sometimes just loses his will and stubbornness and has to go check up on you despite being upset.” The corner of Taehyung’s lip ticks up briefly before he grows forlorn again.

“I understand,” Taehyung says. “I was careless with what I said. I did not think of how it would be perceived. I wish I could explain myself further, but I don’t know what to say without it sounding the same, or worse.”

“Well, you can tell me,” Yoongi says, “and I’ll understand. Because I know what you mean. I understand you, so even if it sounds bad, I won’t get my feelings hurt.”

Taehyung looks down at the dark liquid in his mug. “I love you all so much. I don’t–I don’t think I ever even knew what love truly was before I met Jimin.” He blinks quickly to try to rid himself of the embarrassment of tears. He takes a drink from his mug to try to swallow the feeling down. “But it’s just… I’m just… I just don’t feel anything anymore. I look at the sunset, the garden, the cats who roam around, and I feel nothing. I see things happening around the world, things happening at the manor, things happening in the city, and I feel nothing. I read my books, and I feel nothing. I look at art and watch films and go on my walks, and I feel nothing. For so many years, it is just nothing.”

There are moments that are not nothing, but he cannot speak about those. No matter how safe he feels with Yoongi, he cannot share something so deep about himself. He thinks naming the despair in any way might make it feel more welcome to stay, and he cannot live a life with that pain. He can find it in him to breathe through the moments that it overflows, because he knows it will pass. He does not think he can carry on if it does not pass. He thinks he would let the darkness overcome him again. He thinks that is what he did when it was all there was.

“I am just tired of feeling nothing,” he says instead, because it is true. “I don’t even fully feel tired because I don’t feel anything. But I just–I want it to end. It has been too long. I do not know why I am here anymore…”

The silence stretches on. Taehyung hears a shower running, off in Seokjin and Namjoon’s wing of the house. He hears the television on in the living room, playing a show narrated in Japanese. He hears frost begin to crystallize on their kitchen windows and cling onto the edges of the window panes.

He finally looks up when the silence in the room starts to suffocate him. Yoongi is chewing on his bottom lip and looking across the kitchen, lost in thought.

“Do you know how I was turned?” he finally asks, meeting his eye. It is so rare that Yoongi does that that it catches Taehyung off guard.

He doesn’t know how he was turned. Yoongi never told him, and it is never something to ask about if the story is not offered up. He shakes his head.

“It wasn’t by choice,” Yoongi says, but it rarely ever is. “I was living on the streets for a while. For a long time. And I decided I just had enough. Didn’t want that life anymore. Didn’t want any life anymore. Slit my wrists in a back alley. Waited to bleed out. Didn’t know vampires existed, so didn’t know any would find me,” he chuckles, as if this isn’t a horror story. “They did, drank from me, all that. Don’t know why they turned me after, but they did, and left me there. Kind of ironic, since I was trying to end my life, but was given an eternal one instead.” He chuckles again and shakes his head as if it is actually funny. “Once I got through it and adjusted, I tried to end my life again and again. I tried everything I could think of that I could do myself – read every story about vampires, did research when the internet came around, did everything I could to figure out how I could end this. I stayed out in the sun as long as I could manage. I stabbed myself in the chest with a wooden stake.” Taehyung winces. “I tried everything. When I showed up at the manor and you gave me a place to stay, I kept trying. I asked Namjoon questions, hid them behind saying it was just curiosity and wanting to know more about us, trying to pretend I wasn’t asking with a goal in mind.

“I kept trying and trying. And then I stopped trying, because one day, I just didn’t anymore. One day, I was distracted from that incessant, obsessive urge to die. It just slipped my mind. And you know why?”

Taehyung is sure he could guess. The matching, barely-there smiles on both of their faces show they’re both in on it.

“This bubbly, bright, energetic, funny, strangely kind vampire showed up on our porch steps, and I was so confused about it that everything I’d been trying to do had left my head that day. Then it did the next day, and the one after that. And then Hoseok stayed. And every day was a day spent with him in our lives, and he kept distracting me from it, not even knowing that’s what he was doing. And then you know what happened next? Another one came around, someone who gave Hoseok a run for his money for how sweet a vampire could be, and Jimin stayed too. And then one day, I realized that I was fine being here. One day I just didn’t want to leave anymore.

“And I’m not saying you should go out and find someone to spend your eternity with, because you have five of us who will be here with you. But just… I think one day, something will come along, and it’ll distract you from how you’re feeling, or it’ll plant a little seed in you that will bloom one day, and you’ll see you’re not made of nothing, that life isn’t just nothing. One day, something might come along that will change things, and you should be here to see what it is.”

Taehyung swallows. His hands shake as he grips onto the mug, making the blood in it ebb and flow like ocean waves. He doesn’t know what to say, so he settles on what is easy and true. “I love Hoseok,” he says quietly. "I love Jimin."

He glances up and sees Yoongi looking at him softly. “They love you too. Jimin loves you too. That’s why he’s responding this way.” It makes Taehyung’s chest ache. He wishes he would have been more careful with what he said. “I’ll talk to him. He knows deep down it doesn’t mean you don’t love him or care about him. He was just hurt. He’ll come around. Don’t do anything stupid in the meantime.”

It startles a laugh out of Taehyung. Small and sad but there nonetheless. “I won’t,” he assures him. “Thank you for listening to me.” He didn’t realize just how heavy he was feeling until it became lighter. Still heavier than someone weaker than him could bear, but still, it helps.

“I’m always here to listen,” Yoongi says. “Always.”

Taehyung nods down at his mug, feeling choked up. He clears his throat and blinks a few times to come out of the clutch of his emotions and back to the moment. “I should go check on how Namjoon and the others are doing.” He drains the rest of the contents of his mug, happily humming because it’s where the rest of the spices have settled. “Thank you for this,” he says again. “For spending time with me, and listening, and for making my drinks for me.”

“Of course,” Yoongi says. He takes the mug from him and turns away to wash it, allowing both of them to cover their shyness. Taehyung walks out of the kitchen feeling much better than when he entered it – and it is nice to no longer be starving too, on top of drinking blood to enjoy it, not just to sustain himself. He knows Yoongi loves making what he can for others and would always be more than happy to use Taehyung as a test subject for some of his drink ideas, so maybe Taehyung will take him up on that, if only for the conversations that would come along with it.

Every step closer towards Namjoon’s office, however, makes the warmth of the last hour feel farther away.

He just wants this to be over with. He wants these people out of his home, knowing that when they leave, he does not have to let anyone inside again. He does not want to talk to anyone, and wants to know he can walk freely through his home without having to interact with people he does not like. He doesn’t want to see Baekhyun, but he still has to occasionally partake in the affairs happening beneath his roof, so the things he wants and doesn’t want are not wishes that can be granted at the moment. Even though this is Namjoon’s business, Namjoon is a part of his household. A part of his clan, as some dramatic, pretentious groups of vampires call themselves.

He steps into Namjoon’s business office, not his personal study, and everyone's head snap to him despite certainly being able to hear him approaching. And before anybody can attempt to stop it, the young vampire that was sitting in the chair across from Namjoon is across the office, lunging for Taehyung.

But Taehyung is older, and smarter, and faster, and more refined than any vampire is, let alone a clumsy newborn driven by impulse. Before the vampire knows it, he finds himself across the office, thrown against the wall hard enough for the art hanging there to fall from their nails and clatter to the floor.

“Apologies,” Taehyung says to Namjoon. “I will get any broken frames repaired.”

He turns to the young vampire. He noticed that he appeared young earlier, but when he comes out of his head after the assault for only a moment and is no longer succumbing to his instincts, Taehyung notices just how young he really looks – merely a child in his early twenties. It makes sense why he is having a hard time keeping control (or even wanting to). Young humans find it hard to control parts of their regular lives, so adding this new change into it is more challenging. He tries to have sympathy for him, but it is not easy to ever find any.

The young vampire’s eyes are bright red despite certainly being fed enough in his stay here, but he seems to not want to allow himself to be satisfied and keeps wanting more, which is generally why others come to Namjoon for help. The skin around his eyes is so dark he looks bruised, and his fangs glint off the light. His dark hair hangs into his eyes, messy and unkempt, and his chest heaves from the work he must have been putting in and from being unexpectedly slammed into the wall. Maybe a bit of fear too, Taehyung hopes, when he realizes who he tried to attack.

Taehyung takes the seat beside Namjoon and says, “How are things proceeding?” as if nothing is amiss.

“Dude, you know who that is, right?” someone says before Namjoon can answer him. Taehyung looks over and sees one of Baekhyun’s usual companions speak to the young vampire. He is not sure of anyone’s name here except Namjoon’s and, unfortunately, Baekhyun’s, who has been leaning against the fireplace mantle across the room, watching Taehyung from the moment he walked into the office.

The young vampire looks at the man, then at Taehyung. He has a moment of recognition and a brief reaction of unmistakable fear before it disappears and his crazed bloodlust returns – something that has been and will continue to be at the forefront of his being until it is under control. And hopefully quickly through Namjoon’s help, so they will not be here much longer.

“It’s been slow,” Namjoon says, a subtle apology in his tone. “But slow progress is still progress.”

“Is there anything I can do to assist you?”

“You could do a hospital run?” he suggests, sounding outwardly apologetic this time. “We’ll run out of blood bags soon. We usually don’t give this much to the new vampires brought here, but it is the only way we can make progress for now. We have been slowly lowering the amount until we’ll eventually reach the regular amount most of us drink.”

Taehyung internalizes his sigh. It is possible he has been acting like a difficult teenager who throws a fit when something doesn’t go their way, so he tries to think of this as doing something for Namjoon, or something for any of their friends who would make the hospital run in place of him.

He nods. “I will go sometime soon,” he says. “Is that okay?”

Namjoon nods, an appreciative smile. “Yeah, we’re good for the next couple days.”

The whole time he and Namjoon debrief, Taehyung can feel Baekhyun watching him. He glances over at the new vampire to make sure he will not be attacked anytime soon, but in doing so, he looks at Baekhyun too. Baekhyun smirks. Taehyung takes unnecessary deep breaths to stop himself from doing what he threatened. Baekhyun is bolder and more sure of himself than he has ever been, and Taehyung is reaching the end of his temper.

He ignores him and continues talking to Namjoon for a while longer before finally heading back to his living quarters to spend the rest of the evening alone.

However, when living in a house with five other people, that is something that comes rarely. As soon as he walks into his room, he is joined by someone else. But the ‘someone else’ is always welcome, even if it is unbearably uncomfortable at the moment.

“Hello,” Taehyung says as he unbuttons the sleeves of his shirt after pulling his sweater off from over it.

“Hi,” Jimin says.

Taehyung walks to his closet. Jimin follows him, but stays more than a respectful distance apart. They are never a respectful distance apart.

Taehyung hangs up his sweater, feeling the awkward tension in his whole body. He takes his time with it to avoid having to turn around and look at him. He makes sure it is falling loosely without any wrinkles that could settle in. He carefully moves the clothes on the hangers beside it aside to make room, the sound of wooden hangers clacking together in the silence. He finally does turn around after his sweater-hanging-process takes at least thirty seconds.

Jimin is standing in the doorway of his closet, watching him. When their eyes meet, Jimin’s own dart away before looking at the floor, then back up at Taehyung, but between his eyebrows rather than his eyes. “H-How are you?” Jimin asks.

Taehyung shrugs. “Fine I guess,” he says. “How are you?”

“Same…” Jimin says. Neither of them sound like they mean it. They do not look like it either – the way Jimin’s fading pink hair is messy as if he has been running his fingers through it, the way Taehyung could swear more strands of grey have been sprinkled into his own hair, the way Jimin’s eyes do not have that sheen of mischievousness, the way Taehyung’s shoulders sag.

“Well, um, have a good night,” Jimin says. He turns around, and he’s gone from his room just a second later.

Taehyung sighs out his held breath. He holds onto what Yoongi said though – that Jimin is just hurt, that he understands deep down, that he’ll come around and Yoongi will talk to him. They all have quite a lot of time, so Taehyung doesn’t mind waiting until Jimin is ready to talk.

Despite what happened with Baekhyun, despite what is going on with the newborn vampire here, despite the tension with Jimin, Taehyung feels so sated that it is making him sleepy. It must be the combination of finally feeding and indulging himself – both in the amount he drank, and being mindful and intentional about enjoying it (even though that was Yoongi’s doing and not an intention of his own). So he decides to slide into bed, sighing at the feeling of the silk sheets gliding across his skin. He’s not sure that his bed has ever felt this comfortable and welcoming. He often takes naps out of boredom, a way to pass the time, but he doesn’t remember the last time he took a nap because it was calling for him, and he feels blissful as his eyes close.

Chapter Text

“Uh, did you leave any for the patients at the hospital?” Seokjin asks. He’s leaning against the counter beside the refrigerator, watching Taehyung unload blood bag after blood bag into the fridge. He is dressed more formally than he normally dresses at home – nice pants and a button-up shirt, but the sleeves unbuttoned and rolled up at least. His hair is pushed back from his forehead too when it normally falls loose and fluffy in whichever way it looked when he woke up, but he tends to try to hold an air of professionalism around him when there are guests here, since he is Namjoon’s mate. It is amusing to see, because Seokjin is not a very serious person.

“No, I figured they would be fine if I took it all,” Taehyung says. “Other patients there can donate to each other if they need it.” He glances at Seokjin in his stunned silence and chuckles. Hoseok always whines that Jimin is the only one who can tell when he is joking, because his sense of humor and expression are so dry that it is hard to tell the difference. Seokjin sighs in relief. “They had a surplus of O positive in their overflow fridge, so I took extra.”

Taehyung closes the door to the refrigerator and looks at Seokjin. He pretty much lives in pajamas and a bathrobe, so it is strange seeing him in anything but that. “Is there anything with which you request my assistance?”

Seokjin loudly snorts as he rolls his eyes. He deeply bows, hanging his head. “No, your majesty, you need not bestow your time in aiding me further. I offer to you my deepest thanks and gratitude.”

It makes Taehyung laugh, and Seokjin smiles a special smile because it is not a common sound. Taehyung tries not to show his relief that after a morning and evening of running errands and completing tasks for his housemates, he can finally go on his walk. His walks have always settled and soothed something in him; it is why he began taking them so long ago. Now that he has found the boy, a restless and unsettling feeling has been buzzing through him. He just saw him the night before, but being occupied with tasks made the time since then seem longer.

“Well, have a good evening then,” Taehyung says, bowing to him as he quickly escapes before he can be stopped and asked to complete another errand.

He goes to his bedroom to change out of his hospital-run clothes, because he does not like the scent lingering on them. He changes into a simple outfit of a sweater with nice trousers, then puts on his brown overcoat. He goes to the mirror to look over the clumsy haircut he gave himself earlier, but with his careless wave pattern, the choppiness is covered to look intentionally messy. He does not mind the grey and silver in his hair, but he does find it amusing that the year before he was turned, every strand of hair was midnight black. Only a year later did he start to lose some of his color, and the hair that grew beside his right ear became a tousle of solid grey. He does not mind it; he thinks it suits him, but it is ironic that he was frozen in time right when he began to change.

He finally steps out onto his veranda and leaves the manor. He rushes through the garden so anyone who may be looking out the windows will not see him. He rushes through the forest as well, no longer caring about savoring the walk and his time spent alone like he once did on these walks. He still enjoys them and the time spent in solitude, but now he has something to walk to, rather than aimless wandering. He realizes, though, that it was never really aimless, because in the decades of walking every night, he never really strayed from his route. He has seen the boy’s bench thousands of times before, has always paused at the crest of the bridge. It never occurred to him to walk in a different direction, despite following the same path every single night for years without fail.

He exits the gathering of autumn-colored trees and reaches the park. It is only late evening, so he walks at a normal pace amongst the few people wandering through here and there. He arrives at the boy’s usual sleeping bench, but it is empty of the muse of all of his painted thoughts. Excitement sparkles through Taehyung because it means he will see the boy when he is awake again. He walks across the park to the bench he has sat at to watch him before to wait for his arrival. His leg bounces up and down as a restless tic – something he doesn’t think he’s ever done. It just feels like it has been a while without seeing him. He checks the watch on his wrist even though the darkening of the sky is what decides his arrival.

Taehyung thinks he would consider summer his favorite season. Despite not being able to go out in the full sun, he likes watching its rays fall into the manor, leaving windowpane shadows on the ground, and how they last for longer rather than feeling so fleeting. He likes looking outside and seeing the flourishing garden, and watching the manor’s cats wander through. He enjoys going on his nightly walks when everything is blossoming and warm and the air smells so fresh and alive.

Now, though, he is grateful that it is autumn, and reaching the end of it too. The perpetually overcast days would normally depress him. The barren trees that are soon to come would leave him feel barren as well, and the way the city feels more like a ghost town in the middle of the night, despite being empty in the summer as well, makes him feel like he is left behind to haunt it.

Now, shorter days mean he can leave his home earlier. The grey skies even mean he can go outside in the daytime sometimes, as long as the sun is weak enough to allow it. It means he can be here right now, and not pace around at home for several more hours until it is safe to leave.

It is selfish of him to find a silver lining, though, when the one who makes it silver is really the one who will suffer from it. The boy must sleep outside as it grows colder and colder, and most likely has to spend the day wandering through it without any reprieve.

Taehyung will figure out a plan. Maybe he can pay the homeless shelter to have a bed for him there indefinitely. Perhaps he can figure out a way to talk to him in a way that will not scare him, to tell him he would pay for a place for him to live, for food and clothes and whatever else he wishes.

He is focused on creating a mental list of ideas to revisit and doesn’t notice that night has fallen until a streetlamp in the trees flickers out of the corner of his eye. He realizes that the park is empty, the sky is dark, the lights are on, and the boy is not on his bench.

It’s fine, he tries to assure himself.

He checks his watch. It is one a.m.

It’s fine.

The boy has always already been on the bench or in the park upon his arrival, which has only ever been as late as eleven. But it’s fine.

Taehyung checks his watch again. His eyes bore into the bench, then he looks around the park. It’s empty, and it’s 1:05 when he checks again.

Before he knows it, Taehyung is across the park. He looks at the bench as if it could tell him something, but it is silent. He looks around the park, and it is silent.

It’s colder tonight than it has been lately, he thinks to himself. Maybe he is at one of the homeless shelters around the city. Yes, yes, that is probably it. Taehyung never realized how alone he really is when on his night walks, how empty and still it all is when the boy is not here. Because he is not, he is not here, it is only Taehyung. It’s fine. He is probably warm inside at one of the shelters.

His body is making decisions for him before his head is able to catch up. He is already out of the park and running through the empty city streets, making his way to one of the homeless shelters he knows of. Has it always been so silent? Taehyung wonders. Has it always been so empty? He does not think he ever noticed how alone he truly is. He had gotten so used to the boy being there, even if only asleep.

Taehyung believes he has heard that cellular phones have the ability to find places for him, and he wishes for the first time in his life that he had succumbed to his friends’ pressure on the matter, because if he had gotten one, it would be able to lead him more. He has walked through the city more times than he can count though, so he tries to conjure in his head where all of the shelters are. He has spent so long walking and looking around him, but his panic is beginning to cloud his head. He tries to think of anything other than that. He looks around him to try to steady himself and realizes he was not going in the right direction for the shelter he first thought of. He slows down to a human pace to try to get his bearings rather than scouring the city until he finds somewhere.

He walks past dark shop windows – a jewelry store, a cellular phone store, a coffee shop. He continues beneath stoplights that change colors for no one, past walk lights that give permission to absent walkers. The amber street lights around him elongate his shadow in front of him like he is not truly alone, but his footsteps and heavy breaths are the only sounds around him. He does not even need to breathe, but his body seems to do it for him as if it can regulate itself without his help.

He walks faster when he recognizes his surroundings again, knowing he is going in the right direction. He takes a turn down a seedier street. It is still in the city’s downtown area, but somehow able to portray a rougher side of town while designer stores are only a block away. Garbage piles up on the sidewalks and floods the curbs of the roads like a littered river. Graffiti decorates the buildings and the grimy shop windows. It is strange the way the city can be segregated street by street, the division naturally enforced by the way others know not to go in an area that is not theirs.

After passing a row of several closed-down shops, he reaches a nondescript building he has noticed before. The only indication of what it is are the words “men’s shelter” on the door with stickered letters that are peeling and chipping away. There is a doorbell with a sign above it that reads “ring for entry,” which he has no choice but to do because the windows are blacked out from the outside.

He presses the button and hears a doorbell sound ring on the other side of the locked door. A few seconds later, a voice comes through the intercom speaker. “Name and reason for ringing,” is all the mechanical, bored voice says.

He did not know any of this would be part of the process, so he was not prepared for what to say. He clearly doesn’t need shelter – as indicated by the expensive quality of his clothes. The fact that he is not homeless is obvious, and he assumes those inside can see out even if he cannot see in.

He stutters, “U-Um, Kim Taehyung. And, um, d-donation.” It comes out sounding like a question mark sits at the end of the sentence.

After a few seconds of silence, the staticky voice says, “Donation.” A question in the unamused statement this time.

Taehyung clears his throat to sound more certain. “Yes. I would like to make a cash donation to the shelter.” He wants to break the door open so he can fucking look inside to see if the boy is there. He realizes he is squeezing his hands into fists, so he straightens them back out. He is trying not to restlessly shift his weight from foot to foot too in case they might be watching and not let him in.

“Donations can be made through our website listed on the window.”

Taehyung's jaw ticks. He sees a security camera from the corner of his eye. He clearly doesn’t need shelter, and it is the middle of the night. He understands why the worker would be hesitant to let him inside, but he needs to see.

“Sorry, I couldn’t catch that,” he lies. “Could you repeat that?”

“Donations can be–”

“Sorry, the microphone is breaking up.”

“Donations–”

“Hello? Are you there?”

There is a deep sigh that crackles over the speaker and a muttered sentence that he can’t catch, but it is followed by the sound of something unlocking. When he tries to push on the door, it opens for him.

He doesn’t even try to appear unthreatening by slowly approaching or greeting the workers. He immediately looks around him, scanning the space. The shelter is small and sparse, just a single room with bunk beds and a hallway that most likely leads to bathrooms and a kitchen. He ignores the two workers sitting at the front desk, not sparing them a glance. He looks over their heads at every single person lying in the beds. Men of different ages are asleep on the thin mattresses, every bed full. An older man, a younger, skinnier one, one covered in tattoos, another with piercings and a shaved head. Not one of them is the boy, but he already knew that the second he stepped inside. His scent is not hidden among the others, not even a trace.

The workers are speaking to him, but he doesn’t pay attention. He opens his wallet and pulls out a wad of cash. He folds it up and puts it in the donation box sitting on the desk, then he turns and walks out without a word.

He is on autopilot and arrives at another shelter only thirty seconds later even though it is across the city. This one doesn’t have a door that needs to be unlocked to be allowed entry, but he needs to be allowed entry. He growls to himself because it slows his search down and makes his panic rise. He loudly knocks on the door, not caring that it is going to wake those inside. He doesn’t see a front desk or any workers, but someone who was awake comes out of the bathroom, brushing his teeth. He opens the door for him, and that is thankfully enough to let him through. He shoulders past him. He looks at all of the sleeping bodies, then peeks into the other rooms too. He does not recognize any of the people here. He takes another wad of cash from his wallet and gives it to the young boy who let him inside, figuring he might as well do something nice while he’s there and hopefully set him at ease about a crazed man appearing in the night without saying a word.

In a matter of only five minutes, Taehyung has visited every homeless shelter he knows of in the city. Not one of them is sheltering the boy. Taehyung stands in the middle of the abandoned sidewalk, his hands shaking. He takes deep inhales of the air, trying to pick up on any trace of the boy’s scent that he can trail after. He smells garbage and asphalt and car fumes, and nothing more. Not even any human scents, since it is the middle of the night.

He makes his way back to the park in just seconds, moving faster than he ever has before. As expected, the park is still empty of anybody but him.

He goes to sit on the boy’s bench for the first time. His heart aches because of how uncomfortable and harsh it is to even sit on, let alone sleep for hours. He looks above him in desperation, as if whatever is up there would even look down at someone so monstrous, let alone help him. Still, he begs.

This desperation feels like an unwelcome friend, so close to the kind that visits him sometimes. It should not be this dramatic, to feel so panicked that he cannot find someone he does not even know. Whether he is allowed to feel this way or not, he does, and he cannot make it go away.

It looks as if the first traces of dawn are appearing in the sky. He checks his watch to find that the sun will be rising soon. He must have been searching the city for longer than he thought. It makes sense since he covered almost every inch of it to find every homeless shelter in the area.

Maybe the boy is staying with a friend, he thinks, even though he knows that isn’t the answer. If he had a friend to stay with, he would have been there all along.

Or maybe he finally used the money I gave him, even though he knows that is not true either, because he didn’t smell him near any of the hotels he happened to pass either.

He could have left the city, but Taehyung doesn’t think that is the case either. There are fewer resources in other places and fewer homeless people as well, making it more dangerous for him.

He berates himself in his head. He rages that he should have just fucking talked to the boy. He should have talked to him and somehow convinced him to let him help even though he is a complete stranger. He should have gotten him someplace to stay; then he would know where he is. He would know he is safe.

He stands to search the city again, because the sky is fading from a deep indigo into a dark periwinkle. There are the faintest, most undetectable traces of the boy’s scent lingering in the air, so barely-there that he could be tricking himself into believing it. Still, he follows its thread as much as he can. It’s difficult because of how faint it is, barely a suggestion of a scent. He has to frequently stop to take another deep sniff of the air, searching for it among the others that are beginning to wake up with the city. He growls when the scent completely disappears at the edge of the park. He holds himself back from ripping a tree out of the ground and stands still to think instead.

There is nothing he can do. He has no leads to follow other than going through the city again. But now the sky is lightening even more, and a car drives past here and there while a few humans walk the sidewalk as the city wakes for the workday to start. He has to blend in with everything, walking at a normal pace. He does not usually mind doing it once or twice before disappearing, but there are many humans and he must go down every single block, and he is not irresponsible enough to risk everything right now. At least not yet. Still, when a street is empty, he speeds down it until he sees another human approaching and slows.

He covers each block much slower than he did earlier. It could be a good thing because it might allow him to be more thorough and observant, but it doesn’t make a difference because there is nothing. It also might be good to search in the daytime when the boy might be out and about, but if Taehyung could not find him when the whole city was empty, it only makes it infinitely harder when it is bustling again. Still, he covers every road he can. He peeks into the stores that are opening for the day, checks every bus stop, even goes down into the grimy train station tunnels to shoulder through everybody there. And there is no lovely scent wafting through the air, no boy with a beauty mark beneath his lips on any human he passes.

He reaches all the way to the outskirts of the city, where skyscrapers have faded into homes. It is less likely that he would be here, Taehyung thinks, but he walks down those streets too, since the neighborhoods are still asleep. He walks through their alleys, looking in the small spaces between garages and peering into backyards. He searches residents’ front porches and finds only the occasional stray cat curled up there. No matter where he looks, he is given no luck.

The sun has risen. And, of course, since this is the way the world works, as if to show its ironic humor: after weeks of cloudy, overcast days, this is the day the sun has finally decided to come out. The sky is a mocking bright blue as the rays of the cruel sun’s light make each occasional teasing cloud a pure white. Everybody he passes when he returns to the city looks happier than they have lately now that the sun is out again, and it nearly makes Taehyung shake with rage. He probably would be if he weren’t focused on the way the sun is threatening to burn his skin if he does not obey the rules he was cursed with. Usually if he has been out during the day these past weeks, the feeling has been an uncomfortable prickle, because the sun has been sleepy enough to not do more than that. Now, as if waking up from its rest just to taunt him, its strength is enough in the mere early morning that he can feel burns threaten to mar his skin. He does not think there is any hope once it reaches noontime if it is already beginning to harm him when it has only just risen.

But he ignores it. It provides another welcome distraction from ignoring his inner panicked thoughts. It is easier to curse the sun than listen to what has been rising in his head.

He makes his way to the gym that he knows the boy frequents for the third time. He throws open the door and storms inside, making everyone in the lobby jump from the suddenness. He ignores the people working at the front desk who are yelling for him to check in with his membership card and shoulders past the people coming and going around him. He can already smell that the boy isn’t here, but he walks through the entire gym anyway, and the bathrooms and locker room as well.

A security guard joins him in the locker room right when he is about to leave to continue his search outside. Taehyung barely notices him as he tries to stop him. He starts to say something, his hand gripping onto Taehyung’s sweater, but Taehyung has him across the room before his first word is even out. “Do not fucking touch me,” Taehyung says, his voice so low, deep, and threatening that it would make anybody shake in fear, especially paired with his unexpected strength.

He does not spare him a second look and walks out of the locker room, his jaw clenched. He glances at the employees at the front desk as soon as they open their mouths, and they all take a step back in fear.

He throws open the door of the gym and winces when he steps out into the full sunlight. He can feel it burn his skin in the spots it’s exposed. It is as if he is given an instant sunburn that worsens every second he lingers in the light. He shoves his hands in his pockets and keeps his head down so his hair can add some weak protection to his face.

He walks back to the park, veering around people riding bikes and nearly knocking over a gaggle of children trying to be wrangled by their nanny. He sighs when he walks further and the sunlight becomes dappled beneath the trees, giving him dappled moments of relief. He finally lifts his head and glances across the park, but the boy’s bench is empty. He can smell that he hasn’t been here anyway. He turns back around and starts walking through the city again, because it is all that he can do. It is all that he can do, and it feels horrible to feel so helpless. He blinks and he sees conjured images of reasons why he cannot find the boy. He blinks and they clear, then they return when he does so again. He is okay, he tells himself, as if he knows. He is not gone. He’s not. He is not gone. The grief he feels is not warranted; he is not allowed this grief. He does not know the boy, but the absence of him could make him stagger in pain.

Even though he would be able to smell the boy from blocks away, Taehyung looks at the face of every person he passes to be sure it isn’t him. And eventually, people start to look back at him too as the burns become severe enough that they show on his face. He can feel his skin burning. He swears he can hear it sizzling, can smell it scorching. He catches his reflection in a shop window, and his cheeks have blistering burns on them. His skin is open and painful and red, beginning to blister while still remaining exposed to the light. It becomes worse and worse as the sun rises further into the sky, reaching noontime soon. He fears he will soon burn down to the bone, he fears he may catch fire.

It becomes too much to bear. He may be old and able to tolerate much, much more than younger vampires are – shown through the fact that he even lasted this long and didn’t feel ripped apart from pain in the first five seconds of the sun coming out – but he is reaching the point where it truly will become dangerous. He is cheating this rule, and eventually it will reach the point of no return. He cannot take more of this searing pain, the way his chest is heaving while his stomach roils with constant nausea. He can feel blood running down his face, dripping off his chin and staining his sweater. Humans stare at him in horror, but all of his focus is on not toppling over from the throbbing agony.

He cannot even rush back to the park; he does not have it in him. He staggers his way there, feeling the burns only worsen. He could cry from relief when he finally arrives and the sun becomes obstructed, providing him with the smallest hint of relief – feeling monumental in the state he is in. He can smell his burns on his cheeks right next to his nose, and he thinks they may be oozing puss. He rests his hand on his cheek, and it is hot enough that it would burn a human’s hand if they were to touch it. It comes away covered in blood, and it momentarily distracts him from the pain, because he realizes it has been so long since he has seen himself bleed.

By the time he reaches the edge of the park, the reprieve from the sun strengthens him enough to be able to move faster. The forest provides some shelter as well, and he rushes home. It takes longer than it normally would if he was not so weak from the pain, but he soon bursts through the doors to his veranda. He chokes from the taste of infected fluids dripping down his lips, coughing and sputtering as blood flings onto the rug. He stumbles to his bedroom door to open it and call out Seokjin’s name.

Seokjin appears at the end of the hall, walking calmly because one would not assume that Taehyung would ever be in a situation where he is in need of help. But when Seokjin sees him from a distance, he rushes over and is in front of him in just a second. His eyes are nearly bugging out of his head as he looks him over. “What’s–what are–”

“Need your help,” Taehyung says. He leans against the wall with a silent cry, because the movement of his mouth makes the open wounds stretch out more and tear open wider. He tries to breathe through the pain but it does not do anything.

“Okay, I’ll–I’ll be right back, have to grab a few things,” then he’s no longer in front of him.

After taking care of the inhabitants of the manor in one way or another on different occasions, Seokjin became the manor’s unofficial healer or caretaker whenever any of them is hurt in some way. It is not as simple as following the medical rules that humans follow, because their bodies lack many of the things that humans’ do, and they heal differently as well. Once Seokjin learned all he needed to learn, he has become calm in these situations, which transfers to whomever he is helping. He is discreet as well and does not tell the others if something happens (even though they always find out on their own eventually).

Taehyung staggers over to the couch in his sitting area and collapses into it. He pulls off his sweater to check if he is burnt anywhere beneath his clothes, whimpering pathetically when the fabric slides against his face. He looks down at his chest, watching blood and tears drip down onto it. There are a few red marks where the sunlight managed to weave through the threads of his sweater, but there are no burns, just irritation. His hands cannot say the same, because his knuckles are opened raw with the skin on the top of his hands exposing the skin several layers down from the surface. Nowhere is near as bad as his cheeks and his nose though.

Seokjin is back right away and sits beside him on the couch. He slots a headband behind Taehyung’s ears and pushes his hair back to reveal his forehead. It is burnt as well in strange slits where the sun reached him through strands of his hair. Seokjin clicks his tongue like a scolding mother. “What in the world, Taehyung-ah. What happened?”

He holds a jar of burn cream that he made himself – a mix of medical-grade burn ointment with special ingredients that aid vampires specifically with the way they heal. Unfortunately, unlike other injuries, they do not heal easily from burns. Broken bones or cuts or any number of injuries will heal themselves in an hour at most, but burns are different, because they come from disobeying their rules.

“Stayed outside too long,” he grits out as Seokjin inspects them to gauge the severity.

Seokjin just tuts and doesn’t question further. He uncaps the lid of the jar, and a minty scent emanates from it. Taehyung knows the coolness of it just from the scent is going to hurt, rather than feel like relief. Seokjin’s, “This isn’t going to feel great,” confirms it. His friend scoops some out with his fingers rather than a cotton swab – meaning it must be even worse than he thought if he needs to lather it on. Taehyung just grunts, because he can’t imagine it could be worse than it already feels.

It is, however.

His hands clench into fists as his jaw clenches so hard he fears his teeth will crack. His fingers tear through the couch to try to hold himself back from attacking Seokjin, interpreting this as a threat rather than a friend trying to help. Seokjin’s fingers prod at the burns, feeling as if he is digging them inside even though Taehyung knows he is doing it as gently as he can. The cooling effect of the cream feels relieving, but it is an afterthought because of the pain still so severe.

“How long until it is healed?” he asks through a mix of a growl and a whimper. He squeezes his eyes shut so he does not cry, because he does not want the saltwater to cut through the ointment and cause him any more pain. Even through his suffering, he is holding himself back from running back outside to search for the boy some more. He can take it, he can withstand the burns, because sitting here and being unable to do anything hurts worse than the injuries do. Or it will when it subsides a little bit, because this is all he can feel right now.

“I’m going to put some gauze on them,” Seokjin says, cutting out squares of the scratchy material. “You should leave these on for about two hours, then I’ll come take them off and apply more ointment, then you can let them breathe after. Should be healed in, mmm… I don’t know. I haven’t seen any this severe before. Maybe by next morning? Hard to say though. And you’ll continue to be very sensitive in these spots for a couple of days at least. They’re open wounds, and burns at that, so it’ll take some time to get back to normal.” He takes steadying breaths as Seokjin places the gauze on him, surely making him reminiscent of a mummy with the way he has to cover his entire face. “You should try not to move your face, but your expression is pretty much always flat, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Taehyung just grunts and grumbles, allowing him to finish his work. Where could the boy be? If not at the homeless shelters and not at the park, and seemingly nowhere in the entire city, he does not have a single lead to follow. He knows nothing about him or his life (and a voice in the back of his head says so why do you care?) so he has no idea where to go or what to do. But he has to find him. He has to.

“You okay?” Seokjin asks as he packs everything back up.

“No,” Taehyung says. “I have open blisters on my face.”

Seokjin rolls his eyes. “Apart from that. Emotionally.”

“I’m fine.”

“If you say so,” Seokjin mutters because he knows he is not going to get anything out of him. He stands and makes his way to the door. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“Thanks.” He tries to sound sincere, but he just wants to be alone and think of what to do next. Seokjin knows he means it anyway, since Taehyung isn’t one for showing emotion (as is good for not irritating his burn wounds like he said).

Once Seokjin leaves, Taehyung just sits there. He stares across the room, unseeing. He just needs to sit here until nightfall when he can go back out again. He will bring a hat this time too, in case he has to stay out during the day if he hasn’t found the boy yet. He’ll bring some of the burn cream too, just in case. He feels manic and rabid, using all of his strength to stop himself from running back out there. He needs to find him. The despair that lives inside of him is creeping up; he can feel it. The tendrils of darkness that are crawling up his limbs, inching closer to his chest where it loves to curl up. Taehyung lifts his hand and shoves his fingers into the gauze, pressing into the wounds with a cry so feral it scares the misery away.

Yoongi’s suggestion of a crush is ridiculous for many reasons, but the main one right now being that the way he feels cannot be called such a lighthearted word.

It feels like the blink of an eye that Seokjin returns, which Taehyung is immensely grateful for. He has not moved from this spot, not to fidget or scratch part of his body or do anything at all except prod at the wounds if his fear gets too close. He is not even sure he has blinked. Seokjin approaches slowly, looking visibly unsettled as if he can tell.

“Going to take these off now,” he says. Carefully, he pulls the gauze off the burns. Taehyung sees that they’re red, his blood having seeped through the fabric. He doesn’t flinch or complain even though it feels just as painful as it did earlier with gooey skin clinging to the gauze and pulling off with it. Numbness has begun to take over, as if his head knows it is necessary to drive him to find the boy.

“How does it look?”

“Still not great, but definitely healed a bit,” Seokjin says. He sets the bloodied gauze aside on the coffee table, then he sits to apply some more of the healing cream. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“No.”

Seokjin snorts under his breath. He scoops up some more of the healing cream, and Taehyung sighs when the cooling effect finally takes precedence over the feeling of Seokjin pressing down on the burns.

“If a human were burned this severely, they’d definitely have to get skin grafts,” Seokjin muses as he makes sure all of Taehyung’s burns are tended to. Taehyung doesn’t comment.

He is more thorough than he was the first time. He inspects his burns better since he jumped right into action before. He prods at them in the way he needs to knowing it will not hurt as much now that some of them have closed up, but it it still painful enough that Taehyung feels nauseous.

“Okay, you’re all good for now,” Seokjin says, capping the jar of ointment. “I’m going to leave the healing cream with you, and you can apply it when you need it. You can rub some more on if it dries out on your face, or if you just want some more relief.”

Taehyung nods. “Thank you,” he says, sounding more like he means it this time. “Really.”

Seokjin nods back. “You’re welcome. And if there’s anything on your mind, you can call for me again just to talk.”

“Thanks…” Taehyung says. Seokjin pats the top of his head, making Taehyung laugh, and leaves the room.

Taehyung goes back to sitting there, waiting for night to fall.

Chapter Text

The cold air feels nice on his skin. The blisters on his cheeks have thankfully closed after only a few hours, but his skin is still red with an uneven, fragile texture. So the cold air feels nice, and he feels better now that he can finally be outside and do something, even though walking around and trying to track a scent that is not even there isn’t doing much.

But he will find the boy. And he will see why he has not been to the park to sleep. And he will see that he is okay, and everything will be okay. And the emptiness that is creeping up on him will go away, because he will see that the boy is okay, and everything will be okay.

He feels parts of himself weakening after only a couple of days without seeing him, and he is afraid what will happen if even more follow.

I cannot lose him, he thinks. There is a thought after that, but Taehyung cannot hear it, the words too vague and far away.

I cannot lose him. He will not slip away. He does not question why such a desperation is there, because it simply is.

He arrives at the edge of the park. He is safe in the darkness that has fallen, and the chill of the wind feels as if it is kissing his cheeks so kindly.

It is still early, merely late evening, so others are wandering through the park with him. It takes a few people looking at him with alarm to remember that his face shows the trauma he has put it through, because he had already forgotten since he is on the hunt for the boy again. He doesn’t keep his head down or try to shield his face; he stays alert and looks around him. He would be able to smell if the boy were nearby, but maybe he will spot something that would give an indication as to where he is. His backpack, something he was wearing, anything that could make him be found, to lead Taehyung to him so he can see that he is okay, so he can breathe again.

The park is just as it was yesterday though. It is just a park. It is as if the boy were never there, as if Taehyung hasn’t watched over him as he slept for so long. It is as if he is just on another one of his walks.

He follows every path of the park, veering from the same one he has always taken.

He walks through the city, mapping out every street.

It is as if the boy were never here at all, as if he never existed. As if Taehyung wanted someone to be beside him in life so badly that he conjured up someone from a long forgotten dream, and he finally woke up.

– ☾ –

Chest heaving and face wet with tears or blood or a mix of both, Taehyung throws open the door to the gym and stumbles inside. The pain and tiredness of the past couple of days are causing his vision to blur and blacken around the edges, and he nearly falls onto the ground before catching himself at the last minute.

The workers at the front desk pale, dread and fear on their faces. They certainly recognize him after throwing the security guard across the locker room, and he now looks even worse to accompany their alarm.

“Y-You’re not s-supposed to–” the receptionist bravely tries to stutter out, somehow still committed to doing her job in the face of danger.

Taehyung interrupts her. “You will let me through,” he says, “and no one will bother me. Correct?” They immediately nod and acquiesce, thankfully not putting up a fight. He does not know if he has it in him if someone did put up a physical fight, even if they were just a human.

He hobbles past them and makes his way to the locker room, garnering stares from everyone he passes. He doesn’t bother looking around because he knows the boy isn’t here.

One other man is in the locker room, but upon seeing Taehyung, he is out so quickly it is as if he were a vampire too. Taehyung grunts and groans as he makes his way to the bench in front of the lockers. He finds it in him to chuckle internally at the cracks in the wall where he threw the security guard.

He collapses onto the bench, his chest rising and falling at an erratic, inconsistent pace. It requires all of his energy to stay upright, and even then he cannot stop himself from tilting forward. He presses his elbows into his knees and holds his head up with his hands, ignoring the pain of touching his skin.

He has no idea what time it is, but the entire night, then the day, then the afternoon has passed into evening. He has been outside for nearly twenty-four hours, and he is exhausted. He avoided the sunlight when he could, but he didn’t let it get in the way of his search. His burns are worse than they were when he left the manor, but they are thankfully not open or blistering – just so painful it is making the tears sliding down them burn.

He is not strong enough to stop the thoughts. It is using everything he has to just sit here; he does not have the fortitude to control what is inside of him. The hollowness of his chest that is filled with grief and distress. Not from being unable to find the boy, but from something so old and withered that he cannot recognize it. He does not know if he would prefer the barrenness that is usually in his chest, or the sorrow so thick that it chokes him. He does not know if he prefers this or the desperation felt through his search, or if the two are feeding off of each other to torment him.

Using all of his strength that he has left, he reaches into his pocket and grabs the burn ointment Seokjin gave him. He is able to send a person flying across the room or punch through their chest and grab their heart more easily than he is currently able to twist the lid off of the jar. His hands shake as he applies it to his throbbing cheeks, feeling the tender skin pulse beneath his clumsy touch. He could cry tears of relief when the ointment soothes them like aloe on a sunburn. His burns are not as severe as before, did not get as dire as forming into popped blisters, but it feels like they might as well have since his skin wasn’t fully healed before being burned again.

He catches his reflection in the mirror across the room, and he looks horrible. The cream that he rubs in has a mint-hued, chalky tint to it that leaves a cast even as he rubs it in all the way. His hair looks the way it would when spending days scouring every inch of the city, and he could swear it is more grey than before from the endless stress. His sweater is stretched and skewed and his pants are ruffled, and every inch of his skin is red.

He replaces the lid on the jar and slides it into his pocket. He collapses back on the bench, his back against the harsh metal wall of lockers. He breathes heavily as if he were exercising at the gym like everybody else there. Even as he sits here for ten minutes, for twenty, thirty, no one comes into the locker room, like they can sense his energy from outside. He checks his watch and sees that there is still another hour until sunset, so he decides to just spend it in here, because even his need to find the boy might not be enough to work through the pain of being in the sun. And it is not like an added hour of searching will make him find him, because it has begun to feel pointless. It has been two full days of scouring the entire city multiple times with nothing bringing him closer to finding him, or even give him the barest of clues. Somewhere in the back of his head, he knows that he should accept that he is gone. He does not know what will happen next if he does.

The hour passes quickly when he has so much to occupy his mind. He looks in the mirror again before he goes, and he sees that the burns look much better than they feel. It appears almost as if he has spent some time out in the cold and it has kissed his cheeks with a blush. He supposes it is a good sign if it looks okay, even if it doesn’t feel that way. He exits the locker room, and he notices several people pointedly avoiding looking at him, as are the front desk workers when he passes them.

He walks out into the night, and he stands there.

He doesn't know what to do.

He continues walking.

He walks through the park again. He is almost desperate enough to try to pray that the boy will be on his bench now that night has fallen. His prayers would never be listened to, let alone answered. Begging has never done him any good either. They both die on his lips anyway when he sees that he isn’t there.

Everything he is feeling – resign, sadness, confusion, sorrow – start to give way to anger. He is grateful for it, because anger is easier than desperation. He does not know what exactly his anger is for or a result of exactly, but it begins to burn inside of him. He has been empty for so long. He will not let the first little spark he has seen in a century be snuffed out from his life so easily. Not before he has learned more about why it burns.

He barrels through the park and crosses the road onto the city streets again. He looks in every alley, every building, every human’s face he passes. They are alleys, and buildings, and humans. Normal and regular and dull when having nothing to do with the boy. He ventures deeper and deeper into the heart of the city, following every vein along the way. He turns the corner into a more rundown area of downtown again that he has been through before. It is somewhere he is more than familiar with now, just like the entire city as a whole since he has done nothing but wander through every square inch of it for the past two days – and for many, many, many days before that.

He peers through the graffitied windows of smoke shops, the grimy ones of convenience stores. He looks at every person sitting on every stoop he passes, outside of apartment buildings or abandoned businesses. There is a group of men gathered outside of a boarded up building, sitting on the dirty steps. They are passing a bottle around that is hidden by a brown paper bag, and Taehyung looks at every face it is handed off to. He is inspecting them all and doesn’t see the other person on the sidewalk walking opposite him. They knock shoulders together, and it finally catches Taehyung’s attention.

He is just about to distractedly apologize, but the man is in his face before he can even open his mouth. He backs him up against the brick wall beside him, and Taehyung hears the gathering of men holler and laugh as they watch them. He finally takes a look at the young man. He has overgrown, patchy stubble on his jaw with his head covered in a knit hat, his face appearing dirty even though Taehyung does not spot any dirt on him. The man has a predatory look in his eyes, and a cocky one too. He sizes Taehyung up. He sees an older man in expensive clothes who was easily overtaken. Even if Taehyung were to fight back, the man surely sees strength in numbers with the other men nearby, and in a neighborhood where anyone who were to see something would not say anything.

Taehyung has too much to do. He has too much to think about, too much of the city to keep covering to deal with this. He tries to brush the man aside, but he says, “Ah, ah, ah,” condescendingly.

Taehyung’s anger had simmered as he became objective and thorough in his search, but now it comes back to the forefront. He is not in the mood for this. He doesn’t have the time for petty human men and their swollen egos.

“What’ve you got in your pockets?” the man asks, a teasing edge in his tone as if he’s a cat who caught a mouse.

“I am not the person you want to try this with,” Taehyung says, his voice low and deep as he tries to give him a chance to walk away.

The man crowds him further. Taehyung watches him become predatory in another way. The man’s hand raises, as if to brush his cheek as he says, “I think you are.”

Before his hand can come in contact with his face, Taehyung’s own hand is around his neck. He instantly squeezes to cut off his air, and he quickly turns him around to slam the man against the brick wall. Pieces of it crumble and fall onto the ground around them. The men gathered a few doors down all make noises of surprise and distress as they scramble and disperse, but only a little ways away to stay behind to watch.

Taehyung smiles sadistically. He has not had a way to let anything out yet. The panic in the man’s eyes becomes worse watching the change in Taehyung, the way the little humanity he has leaves him. Taehyung pulls him closer, almost tenderly like the man intended to touch his cheek. He slams him back into the wall with a harsh crack as his head collides with it.

Taehyung throws him aside as if he were a rag doll. The man collapses into a heap, making pained sounds as he tries to crawl away. Taehyung doesn’t spare him a second thought and walks down the street again to continue his hunt.

Now that his anger has come alive, it is all that he is made of. Everyone on the sidewalk at this hour immediately crosses the street or runs the opposite way, as if they can sense their danger even from afar. Taehyung does not stop looking around him, does not stop smelling the air even as it makes him lightheaded from how many scents there are. He takes random turns and follows random streets, because there is not anything else for him to do. He passes a dark alley, and he sees someone crowded against the wall with another person against them, a mirror to earlier. When Taehyung takes another breath, the smell of blood is heavy in the air.

He notices the man’s face in the woman’s neck now. He is holding her there as she struggles. She cries out as his fangs sink into her. He knows that humans often consent to being fed from by vampires, but this does not look that way. When the woman’s eyes connect with his, her gaze is begging. Her blinks get slower and slower as the vampire drains her.

Taehyung bounds into the dark, empty alley. He takes a hard handful of the vampire’s hair. He yanks the man’s head back, his fangs sliding out of the woman’s neck. She immediately runs away, clumsy from blood loss. Taehyung yanks, and he disconnects the vampire’s head from his neck. He drops the severed parts onto the dirty ground, and he walks back down the alley, leaving him there.

He nearly lunges at every person who simply looks at him, growling and lowly hissing like a feral creature. A drunken man standing outside of a bar wolf whistles at him, and before he knows it, he is on the ground writhing with his kneecaps twisted out of their sockets. Another man stumbles out of a bar a few doors down, and he finds himself on the ground too, but Taehyung isn’t even sure what he did to get him there.

He turns onto another street and collides with someone doing the same. He reaches out to give them the same fate as the others left behind in his path, but then he freezes.

His head whips over. He looks across the street and sees an open door that leads into a dark, smoky bar. Loud music travels out from the open doorway, as do a few drunken patrons. There is a neon light on the window showing a brand of soju, but no other markers but that. The door closes after the final person in the group stumbles out, and it closes off the scent he thought he smelled, leaving nothing behind. He stands there frozen, his mind reeling. The door opens a second later with someone else’s exit, and Taehyung is certain it is there. Hidden and subdued and barely a suggestion of what he is searching for, but it is there.

Taehyung crosses the street and shoulders past the people lingering outside. Their sounds of annoyance are immediately cut off with one look from him. A low growl forms in his chest, because he is forced to stand here, waiting until someone opens the door to allow him entry. He cannot demand entrance from anybody, so he is left to stand here aimlessly as people throw unsettled looks his way.

A few minutes later, a woman walks past him and holds the door open behind her. Taehyung bounds into the dark, smoky bar. Even from the entryway, even through the scents of sweat and humans and spilled beer, it’s here.

He pushes his way in further, studying the face of everyone here. The bar is not very big and it is reasonably crowded, but the scent of the boy after so long is making his vision blur. There is a dance floor at the back of the bar, dark with only the dotted illumination of colorful lights showing glimpses of those there. He looks through the crowd of people drunkenly dancing to loud sounds playing from the speakers, and he spots him.

Taehyung collapses into the stool beside him in relief.

The boy is there. He is swaying to the music with a bottle of beer in his hand, held against his chest. He is not even dancing, seemingly unable to hold himself up that much as he leans against the wall with his eyes closed, a serene-looking smile on his face.

Taehyung sighs. His eyes close as he sinks into the overwhelming relief, all of the heaviness and anger and desperation from the last several days floating off of him and joining with the smoke that obscures the bar. His eyes shoot open in panic, as if the mere second will make the boy disappear again. But he is still there, swaying to the music. His eyes closed, hair messy and wavy, cheeks flushed from the alcohol. It is probably why Taehyung could not smell him, he realizes, despite being able to smell anyone in a building he passes. It is so subdued by the alcohol that his scent is so faint, even from this close.

“Is he yours?” someone suddenly asks. It makes Taehyung jump, but he doesn’t even look over at the bartender. He will not lose the boy again.

“Hm?”

“Jungkook. Is he yours? Been here for a couple days now, more than he’s usually here. Suspect he wanted to get out of the cold. Not sure how he doesn’t have alcohol poisoning by now, but he’s been payin’ so he’s been stayin’.”

Jungkook.

Jungkook.

Taehyung says the word in his head, and it becomes filled with it. Jungkook, Jungkook, Jungkook, Jungkook, Jungkook.

Jungkook.

“Yes,” he finally says.

“You should get him out of here,” the man says. Taehyung finally looks over. The bartender looks around his age. He is bulky and buff, his head shaved bald, a beard on his face that is speckled with grey. The man surveys him. He doesn’t ask who he is or what their relationship is. He just asks, “Is he safe with you?”

“Yes,” Taehyung says. “Of course.”

The man studies him for a few seconds before slowly nodding, then he walks away to make a drink for the person down the bar yelling their order at him.

Taehyung doesn’t waste any more time. He stands and crosses the bar. He sidesteps a few drunken people who try to pull him into a dance, swerving around disgusting, sweaty bodies. He gets closer and closer, so close, after searching for so long. Then the boy’s – Jungkook’s, Jungkook’s, Jungkook’s, Jungkook’s – eyes open as if he could hear his footsteps through the booming music.

Taehyung doesn’t even have time to write poetry in his mind about the boy’s eye’s locking with his, nor does he have a moment to find words about the smile that is fixed at him, because the boy stumbles and wavers and almost falls before Taehyung, of course, of course, catches him.

“Woah, woah there,” he chuckles, holding him still. They are touching. Everything inside of Taehyung blooms and sings and blossoms and soars just from the mere touch. And when those things are true, he does not even know what it is everything inside of him does when Jungkook then cozies right up to him. He nuzzles him like a drunk, cuddly kitten.

Taehyung sighs from feeling calm for the first time in so long. Jungkook is okay. Jungkook, Jungkook, Jungkook. His name is Jungkook and he is okay, and he is right here. He is here and he is nuzzling him as if he did not cause Taehyung so much distress for days.

“Silly little human,” Taehyung chides, barely noticing the overwhelming fondness absolutely dripping from his tone. “What are you doing here, darling boy, hm?”

“‘s warm in here,” Jungkook slurs. He hums. “Y’re cold though. Feels nice.” He pulls the collar of Taehyung’s sweater down so he can rest his flushed cheek there, cooling himself on his skin. Taehyung has never felt more grateful to be so cold.

He brushes Jungkook’s long hair out of his face, and he presses his palm against his other cheek to cool him. Jungkook sighs in happiness, his eyes shut. His skin is so warm. Taehyung can feel his warmth as he cools him. Jungkook’s skin is damp from sweat and he looks as if he has not slept or bathed in days, and he is so beautiful it is difficult for Taehyung to believe he really exists.

“Let’s get you somewhere nicer so you can lie down, my darling,” he says as Jungkook sways against him. He does not notice the pet names falling from his lips because it feels so natural for them to be there. “Where are your things?”

“Behind th’bar.”

“Okay, let’s go then, silly human.” He wraps Jungkook’s arm around his shoulders and places his hand modestly on his waist. Mostly holding his body up himself, Taehyung slowly walks them across the crowded dance floor back to the bar. He finally notices how soft his voice was when speaking to Jungkook only because he hears the way it changes when asking the bartender, “May I have Jungkook’s things?”

The man reaches under the counter and holds out Jungkook’s backpack. Taehyung takes it and puts it on his own back. The bartender does not ask any questions or say a parting word as they walk away.

They leave the musty, humid bar and walk out into the chilly night. The sudden temperature change makes Jungkook shiver unexpectedly, and Taehyung has never wished to be warm as badly as right now, to try to give Jungkook a source of warmth in the cold autumn night instead of making it worse.

Jungkook doesn’t say anything about it though, just lets Taehyung walk him away from the rowdy bar. Taehyung is almost unnerved about how Jungkook is leaving so easily with a stranger, but he does not dwell on how this could be a bad situation at another time, because it is not. He is not with a stranger with bad intentions; he is with Taehyung, who would never hurt him.

“Is there somewhere you would like me to bring you?” he asks. He has somewhere in mind and is rather certain Jungkook does not have anywhere to go, but he would bring him where he wishes if he says so. Jungkook makes a grumbled sound that is not an answer in one way or another, so Taehyung continues toward the hotel he thought of.

Jungkook is here. Not only has he found him after searching, but he is right here, beside him. He knows his name too. Jungkook. Such a beautiful name that fits in so perfectly it is as if it was already in Taehyung’s head. This isn’t exactly the way he would have chosen to get to finally speak to him, but he feels grateful for this. Maybe it is better this way, because he is not sure there is a situation where Jungkook – or most people, for that matter – would allow a rich, older man to come to him in any way.

Taehyung doesn’t know what to talk about because there is so much he wants to talk about. He wants to know everything, he wants to hear his voice. He does not know how to proceed, because all of it feels like taking advantage of him.

So just to fill the silence and put Jungkook at ease (although he really doesn’t seem like he needs it), he asks, “How are you, little human?”

With a pout that could kill Taehyung on sight if he weren’t already dead, Jungkook grumbles, “‘m not a little human. You’re a little human.”

Taehyung snorts unexpectedly – a sound he is not sure he has ever made. “I’m not,” Taehyung says. Jungkook’s physique is not lost on him anymore though, even through his clothes, so he says, “And I suppose you are not either,” to pacify him. It seems to work, because Jungkook’s heart-wrenching pout turns into a beautiful, serene, close-lipped smile as he allows Taehyung to walk them down the sidewalk. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” Jungkook slurs. Then Taehyung's non-beating heart somehow stops when Jungkook turns into him and nuzzles him again. Without the surprise of finally finding him, it hits him differently. Taehyung stops walking without meaning to, which stops Jungkook from walking too. Jungkook does not seem to notice though, because he just continues happily nuzzling like a little cat.

Taehyung’s breathing comes out shaky. He squeezes his eyes shut so hard he sees lights and colors and shapes behind his eyelids. He feels his knees tremble, and it is more like he and Jungkook are holding each other up than Taehyung doing so. He swallows, then his lips part to let out soft, even breaths. He wants to turn his head and nuzzle back, but that feels like taking advantage too, so he lets Jungkook use him as something to comfort himself with. If they weren’t holding each other up, Taehyung would collapse to his knees when Jungkook mumbles, “Feel okay now… didn’t before…” He could just be talking about being in the fresh air, Taehyung tells himself. It could be about no longer drinking, or being out of the loud bar. It could be about any number of things. But the tone in his voice…

Taehyung takes a deep breath to gather himself. He does not breathe in through his nose so his head does not grow fuzzy with Jungkook’s scent. He takes a few moments, then he finally opens his eyes. He blinks and breathes and adjusts to the world that exists outside of Jungkook’s nuzzling. It helps when Jungkook finally leans back and just rests his body against his. Taehyung focuses on the amber street lights above them. The muted sound of the bass from the bar a few blocks away. He takes some more deep breaths, then he starts walking them again.

They walk in silence for the remainder of the street they are on, then the next one too. There are only the sounds of their footsteps as they leave the area of the city that is still awake so late, and Jungkook’s slow breaths. Taehyung tries to remember anything he wants to know about him from the vague list of ‘everything,’ but it is difficult to focus on anything when all he can feel is where Jungkook’s nose and cheek were against his skin.

“How are you, liddle hyoom’n?” the boy beside him says.

It startles a loud laugh out of Taehyung. The sound echoes down the street containing only the two of them, and it is clumsily followed after by Jungkook’s tiny giggle. “I’m…” Taehyung takes another trembling breath. “I’m–I’m so wonderful.”

He does not know if he is thankful that they finally arrive at the hotel so Jungkook doesn’t ask any more questions that will continue to overwhelm him until he collapses, or if he is drowning in absolute despair that they will part soon. He also finds it worrisome that Jungkook hasn’t asked any questions about who he is or where he is taking him, or that they are now arriving at a hotel, but he chalks him up to being intoxicated. He hopes that is what it is.

Taehyung pauses in the vestibule of the hotel. He takes a moment to loosen his limbs in a way that does not feel natural. He allows them to hang or move freely and ungracefully, and he makes his smile a little looser too – which also feels strange when he rarely smiles at all. He doesn’t want whoever is working at the front desk to question the situation if he sees an older man completely sober with a very drunk, younger companion, so he tries to recall how it felt to be tipsy when he was a human so long ago.

He stops guiding Jungkook so much when they walk so that his drunken clumsiness is a guide for Taehyung to follow. They stumble through the doors into the lobby of the hotel and hobble to the front desk.

“H’llo,” Taehyung slurs. “Would like to book a room.”

The receptionist looks up from her computer and pushes her glasses up to the top of her head to hold back her dark hair. She appears to be a little younger than Taehyung with delicate features, and she studies him with amusement, rather than suspicion. “How many beds and how long will your stay with us be?” she asks as she types on her computer.

“One bed please, and, mmm, indefinitely.” She raises an eyebrow – whether at two men and one bed, or an indefinite stay – but doesn’t question or comment or even glance at him.

Taehyung looks over at Jungkook, who is being a silent and polite little angel. Taehyung finds his eyes closed with that small, serene smile back on his face – probably from being in the warm lobby and not having to figure out how to move his legs and not stumble or fall, even though Taehyung would never let that happen.

“May I have a credit card to put on file, along with your license to make a copy for your booking?”

Taehyung hesitates for a moment, but hopefully when Jungkook is awake again and sober, he will not ask the front desk any questions to figure out who booked the room. He opens his wallet and hands over his credit card and his license – a fake, but a very high quality one that would never be found out. He has to renew his license every time it expires but needs to keep his age as forty-two, the age he was turned and the age he mostly looks like, even though the tiredness that appears in every part of him ages him and elicits a double take from everyone he tells.

Taehyung wonders how old Jungkook is. He can tell he’s younger – maybe his mid to late twenties. Definitely young enough to have a semi-considerable age gap to his forty-two (and a more than considerable age gap when taking everything else into account). Seeing the birth date on his license does elicit a glance between them from the receptionist, but one of curiosity rather than judgment.

She begins to type his information into the computer as he and Jungkook lean on each other. Taehyung glances over, and Jungkook’s head still rests on his shoulder with that calm, subtle smile on his lips. It brings the same look to Taehyung’s face too. When he looks away from him and finds the receptionist looking at them, it is with the same expression as well. She holds out his cards to return to him, along with two additional cards. Taehyung cannot remember the last time he was in a hotel, but it is long enough to be confused when she tells him that they are his room keys. He tries to be subtle in turning them over in his hand in case the key is maybe taped to the back for some strange reason, but they are just nondescript white cards. It would raise her suspicions if he were to ask how he is to open the room with these, because handing them off without explanation implies that this must be the norm now. He ignores it so he can listen to what she is saying.

“You two will be in room six thirteen,” she tells him. “It’s on the sixth floor, with elevators down the hall there to get you there. Our room service hours are from six in the morning to eleven at night, our pool is open from eight a.m. until ten p.m., and our gym is twenty-four hours. If there’s anything we can do to assist you or make your stay more comfortable, please don’t hesitate to call from the phone in your room or come down.”

“Thank you,” Taehyung says with a clumsy bow, and he is given an amused smile in return.

He keeps up the tipsy pretenses as they slowly make their way across the lobby. Once they have turned out of sight, he straightens up and efficiently walks them to the elevator. He presses the button to call for its arrival, then he looks at Jungkook again, a little unnerved by his quietness. His eyes are open now, and he is just looking ahead of him with his head still on Taehyung’s shoulder. He has the most beautiful eyes, so round and sweet.

Taehyung asks, “How are you feeling, sweetheart, hm? Quiet boy.”

“Sleepy,” Jungkook mutters. His eyes close with an adorable yawn, showing a peek of bunny-like teeth.

“We will get you right in bed soon. Get you all comfortable and warm, and you can sleep however long you’d like.”

“Sounds nice,” he says dreamily. Taehyung realizes he probably has not done that in a long time. He has had night after night of sleeping on a bench in the cold, needing to get up and start his day whenever the sun rose enough to wake him. Taehyung assumes he has been without a place to sleep for longer than the amount of time he has been watching him too.

The elevator doors part with a quiet ding, and he ushers them inside. His eyebrows furrow when there is no attendant inside to greet them or bring them to their floor. Instead, he sees a panel on the wall with several numbers and buttons on it. Unsure if it is correct and hoping he does not break the elevator, he reaches out and presses the button beside the number six. He jumps when another quiet ding sounds, and the doors begin to close.

And once they do, a quiet gasp falls from his lips. The doors are mirrored, and he sees the two of them together.

His very first thought appears unbidden, the moment his eyes landed on them.

We look perfect beside one another.

The second thought too. He looks perfect beside me.

The third, the forth, every thought thereafter that he cannot stop before they come to him.

I can protect him.

I can take care of him.

I can give him what he needs. I can be what he needs.

I wish for longer than this night.

I wish for so much more.

At some point in entering the hotel, their arms stopped being wrapped around one another to aid Jungkook in walking. Instead Jungkook has both of his arms wrapped around Taehyung’s left arm, and he holds it to his chest as his temple rests on his shoulder. His eyes are closed in his sleepiness and he leans fully against Taehyung. Taehyung does not realize he has titled his head to rest it on top of Jungkook’s until it causes Jungkook’s eyes to open. Their gazes lock together in the mirrored doors. Taehyung can tell that Jungkook is drunk; his stare is unfocused and not fully seeing anything. But still, their eyes lock together, and Jungkook sleepily smiles. Then he closes his eyes again as the elevator continues to rise.

Before more terrifying thoughts can come to Taehyung’s head, the doors thankfully part. Taehyung gently shakes his shoulder to jostle Jungkook awake.

“Almost there, sleepy boy,” Taehyung says, leading them out of the elevator in search of the correct room number. Jungkook is walking considerably slower than before as the days of intoxication catch up to him.

They finally arrive at the correct door, and Taehyung remembers the issue with the key. There is no hole for a key on the door, but rather a strange black square where it would normally go. Taehyung may be old and out of touch in some ways, but he is a smart man and easily figures out that the two strange things go together. He taps the card against the sensor on the door, and the lock turns with a mechanical hum.

He walks them into the suite, which is just a simple layout with a bedroom, a living area, and a bathroom. He walks them to the bedroom, and as soon as they arrive at the bed, Jungkook collapses down like a starfish.

Taehyung chuckles, but he gets to work before he can stop to look at him and fall into an easy trance.

He drops to his knees. He unties Jungkook’s shoelaces and carefully pulls off his shoes. He neatly sets them by the door, then he pulls the duvet back on the bed. “Can you come up here for me?” he asks softly. Jungkook grunts and mumbles something unintelligible. “Please? Let’s get you all tucked in, hm?”

Without actually getting up, Jungkook ungracefully drags himself up the bed. Taehyung laughs to himself as he bends Jungkook’s legs for him to let them slip under the blanket. So, so gently, as if it were the most precious thing to ever be held, he lifts his head and gently sets it onto the pillow. Jungkook smacks his lips together as he settles in, making Taehyung laugh to himself again.

Before he can stop himself, his fingers glide through Jungkook’s hair. He smells like smoke from the bar and sweat from being there for so long, but the scent of his blood is still in the air. Warm and rich and quiet right now, subdued because of all of the alcohol he has had. Taehyung’s hand makes its way through his hair again.

He doesn’t even need more than this. This is enough, this little touch. But he wants it more than just right now. He didn’t know just how badly. He wants this for longer. He does not know what he will do once he leaves. And he has to leave.

Not yet though.

“I’ll be right back, darling boy, okay?” he asks softly. Jungkook makes a sound of acknowledgement, so Taehyung quietly leaves the hotel room.

He walks to the vending machines at the end of the hall. He painstakingly feeds his cash into the machine and presses the buttons for what he would like to order, again and again and again until he has retrieved almost every single thing in the machine. He turns and does the same to the drink machine, then he carries a big armful of everything back to the room.

Jungkook is fully asleep when he returns, soft snores coming from him. Taehyung has not heard him snore before, so he must have really passed out. He carefully sets everything on the television console across from the bed, arranging them nicely and neatly for him. He looks through all of the drawers until he finds the room service menu, and he places it beside the vending machine snacks.

Then with more sadness than he has felt in a long, long time, he takes the notepad and pen that is on the side table, and he writes. There is so much he would like to say, but he says just enough to hopefully put him at ease.

Jungkook,

You need not worry, because nothing improper took place in any way, I assure you.

This room has been rented indefinitely. Please take advantage of it – the bed, room service, amenities – for as long as you’d like. I hope that will be for a long time.

Please do not worry. You are safe.

He doesn’t sign his name. He doesn’t write how enchanting he is. How silly and beautiful, how he would protect him from any and everything. How he will do so, how he will keep him safe and would do anything he can to care for him and put him at ease.

He sets the note on the nightstand. He moves Jungkook’s backpack to the floor beside it, then he looks through it to find the painkillers he bought for him when he replaced his things. He sets them on the bedside table as well, along with a bottle of water.

Then he stands beside his bed, aching and hurting.

He wants more time. He wants more. He wants more.

He cannot stop himself from brushing through his hair again. He feels the long tresses slip through his fingers. He brushes his knuckles tenderly down his cheek, wishing he could feel the warmth of them. Jungkook does not stir, and most likely won’t for a while.

“Goodbye, darling boy,” Taehyung whispers.

Nothing has ever been so difficult. The pain of being turned and left without help. Leaving behind the life he knew again and again and again. Waking up from periods of darkness and realizing what he had done within them. Nothing has ever been as hard as this.

He forces himself to look away. He walks out of the room and leaves the boy behind.

Chapter Text

Taehyung does not lack self-awareness. Nearly two centuries is a long amount of time to get to know oneself, and he knows who he is. He knows he is rather unpleasant much of the time, but there is not a thing he would not do for the ones he loves. He knows there has been an emptiness inside of him for as long as he can remember, a hollowness in his chest so profound that he is unable to do anything but feel its chasm every second of every day. He knows that he is intelligent and pensive and often gets lost in his head about one thing or another.

He knows himself quite intimately, and it is precisely why he has not been able to leave, he thinks. He knows himself, so he does not understand why a new part of him has unveiled itself so suddenly, in such a confusing manner. It is unlike him to take any interest in another person (apart from his friends), and especially not a human. It is unlike him to behave so weirdly, to become creepy and obsessive and strange. To be so fixated on someone. Half of him has acquiesced, simply accepting that Jungkook has taken up such a prominent role in his life. The other part of him cannot be so readily accepting. Half of him lingers and follows and watches because he wants to ensure that the boy is safe, and the other half does so as if he can figure out why he is being like this. Half of it is for Jungkook, and half of it is for himself.

He wants to understand why he has been standing outside, across the street from the hotel for two days, as if watching and waiting for long enough will reveal the answer to him. Accepting that he has just stumbled upon an unexpected infatuation is too difficult to believe, because this is not like him. This is not the person he knows. So he watches Jungkook because he needs to learn, and he watches Jungkook because he needs him to be safe.

Thankfully the building he has been loitering outside of is not occupied by a business, but is instead empty with a company’s “for rent” signs stuck to the windows. Those who work at and frequent the businesses on each side, however, throw different variations of confused and unsettled looks his way when they see him standing outside from open to close, two days in a row.

He ignores their stares, because his eyes have remained fixed on the doors of the hotel across the street. The room rented to him faces the back alley rather than the street, so Taehyung cannot see the activity of the light in the window. He would rather station himself out front anyway though so he can catch it if Jungkook leaves. And he hasn’t. Taehyung is happy about it, because it ensures he has a bed and warmth and (hopefully, if he takes advantage of room service) food. Still, he would like to see him, to see that he is okay.

The burn in Taehyung’s throat was manageable during his days of searching for Jungkook, but it has been days of standing here after that. By the time the sun is rising on the third day’s dawn (and his fifth or sixth day since being home, he thinks; he cannot really remember) the burn in his throat is beginning to teeter toward unbearable. His body has begun to cramp in the strange way it does when he’s thirsty, feeling it in his veins more than his stomach while his joints feel sore and difficult to move. It hurts every time he swallows. He knows he has waited too long when every trace of a human’s scent that passes him makes his sight waver from the hotel to watch them until they’re out of sight.

He doesn’t want to, but he has to leave to feed.

If he were like others of his kind, it would be easy. He could just grab a human and drag them to the alley. But he is not tasteless or cruel – at least not when it isn’t necessary.

Still, he hesitates for several hours more, trying to fight his thirst and convince himself that it is not that bad. It is followed by regret that he did not leave earlier, because now he will have to walk in the sun. He does not want to leave his spot and let the hotel out of his sight. He does not want to miss the boy leaving, to not be able to track him to see where he goes. He does not want to lose sight of him again and have to scour the city, just to possibly be met with his absence again.

But with how wonderful the boy smells, even if he does leave… Taehyung must go. He has to feed before he smells him again. He tells himself that it is for his protection. He tries to convince himself that it has been days without him leaving the hotel, so it is unlikely that he will slip away in the next hour or two.

Taehyung winces when he leaves the shade of the building’s doorway and steps into the sunlight. Not really caring who sees, he runs. Most people cannot see him once he’s started, and if they catch the blur or feel the air rush, they chalk it up to something more rational than the existence of vampires.

He crosses the city, weaves through the park, makes his way through the forest, and is back on the manor’s grounds in a matter of minutes. Whenever he is away for an extended period of time (which hasn’t been the case in… he can’t actually recall), he sighs in relief when he is back home again. Now, all he wants to do is turn around and escape again.

He enters the manor and immediately makes his way to the kitchen.

He commends himself for taking more blood bags than was necessary when he made his trip to the hospital, because there are still some left for him. Someone will have to replenish their supply soon, but it can be someone else’s errand to run this time. He does not take the time to treat himself and indulge in the taste like he did with Yoongi; he just tears the bag open and drains it.

He sighs once it is empty, as if he were drinking a cold drink on a hot day.

He grabs another bag even though one was enough, but he wants to overcompensate for his thirst so he can stay out for longer if necessary.

As he is drinking his second blood bag, he is no longer alone in the kitchen.

“Where have you been?” Jimin demands, his voice sharp.

Taehyung throws the empty bags in the garbage can and turns to him fully.

Jimin… doesn’t look great.

He does not know why he keeps noticing his hair, but he almost gauges how he is feeling through it; as if it is a reflection of the state of his spirit, the color leaving him. The pink washed itself out to a dull, unattractive greyish-rose color. It matches the dullness of his eyes, but most of it is hidden by his anger, mostly showing in the sag of his shoulders and made up for by his angrily crossed arms. He has dark circles around his eyes too. It is a strange occurrence unless they have not fed, but he knows Jimin has because the color of his irises are their usual dark brown. He stands defensively, watching him.

Taehyung did not prepare an answer, because he did not expect to run into anyone in his brief visit.

A few seconds of silence passes before he says, “I do not wish to be here while our guests are still here.” It is still the truth, but Jimin knows it’s a lie. He can tell by the way he says it, even though the answer itself is sufficient and believable. He has never stayed out during the daytime when others are here, but his outburst recently – along with his interaction with Baekhyun, that he is sure has made its way to him by now – is enough to not be questioned.

“You’ve been out for a week,” Jimin says. “A week. And you refuse to get a fucking cellphone, so there’s no way to reach you. I can’t go out in the sun, and I haven’t been able to search for you at night. I didn’t know if you were okay, Tae. Or if you–if you were leaving us.” His voice cracks halfway through and trembles by the end of his sentence, but he clenches his jaw and squares his shoulders, trying to not show his vulnerability – especially when he has refused to speak to him even when he was here.

“I am okay, and I am not leaving,” Taehyung says. Jimin stares at him, expecting more, but Taehyung does not provide anything else. The kitchen is filled with tense silence as Jimin stares him down. Taehyung thinks he can see his heart break. It does the same to his own, because this is Jimin, his best friend and the person he loves most in the world.

But he just–he can’t let him know about Jungkook. Something in him stops him from telling him. He does not know why, because if anything, Jimin would help him. He would help him sort out his feelings, he would offer advice, or he would comfort him if nothing else. But he just–he can’t. Jungkook is his.

It makes something in Taehyung shift.

Jungkook is his.

He hasn’t thought it before. He hasn’t let himself be so direct about any of this when he is still confused by all of it. He hasn’t taken this mental step even though it has taken over his life.

Jungkook is his.

And he is going to keep him to himself, and keep him safe. He is his, and his alone.

Jimin finally releases a rush of air through his mouth, his shoulders fully drooping. He shakes his head, resigned. “Whatever, Tae,” he says quietly. He leaves the kitchen saying nothing more. Taehyung knows he has hurt him, and he knows he is being a terrible friend to the person least deserving of it in the world. Jimin deserves only love and care and endless shows of adoration. He deserves to be shown just how much Taehyung loves and treasures him. Jimin knows there are things he is not telling him, and Taehyung is allowing the foundation of their friendship and their trust to crack.

But it’s just–Taehyung doesn’t know. He does not know. But he just–he just can’t tell him. At least not right now, but most likely ever. He cannot tell him – he regrets even telling Yoongi. It seems that Yoongi has not told anyone though, if he hasn’t even told Jimin. He is grateful for it, because no one can know about Jungkook.

He heads to his living quarters. He feels as if he has been outside for days. That he’s been in the sun, that he’s scoured the city, that he’s been wearing these clothes for a while. He would like to shower and change, and he supposes he could do with some rest too. He tells himself that it is okay, that Jungkook is safe in the hotel, that, again, if he has stayed there for the past couple days, he will probably stay for a while longer. Taehyung does not need to worry.

It is still there, of course, the worry and unease. It has become a part of him even when Jungkook is in his sight. He tells himself again that it is okay. He can’t take care of Jungkook if he does not take care of himself as well.

He thinks about the past few days as he makes his way back to his wing of the manor. Thoughts swirl in his head as he ruminates and replays everything that’s taken place, so he doesn’t even realize that the spot beside him is occupied until a voice cuts through his thoughts.

“You’ve been away,” Baekhyun says.

Taehyung sighs. It is more emotion than he ever wants to show around him, but his tiredness is catching up to him now that he is home and it is hard to mask it. “Yes,” he says. Despite how he feels being faced with him again while having to be away from his boy, the word comes out less biting than they always do.

“What have you been up to?”

“My days, whether I am here or not, are none of your concern.” His life as a whole is something he is not welcome to knowing.

“Have you heard about the fledgling?”

“No.” He supposes he will have to debrief with Namjoon, since he has missed several days.

“He attacked Namjoon and Jimin,” Baekhyun says. Taehyung would normally snap at him for speaking about them without any formality, but it matters much less than the information he’s relayed.

“What?” Taehyung says harshly.

A ghost of a smirk is on Baekhyun’s lips, happy to have captured his attention. The fact that his family has been attacked is clearly insignificant to him in comparison – or at all.

Taehyung assumed Jimin looked the way he did because of what is happening in their friendship, but he realizes he did not ask how he is at all.

He has been a horrible friend who deserves nothing from the best person he knows. But it’s just–Jungkook. He is all there is in his life right now. He knows it is not a good thing and not something he should indulge. He knows that his family should come first always – especially when compared to someone who is essentially a stranger.

But–Jungkook.

He doesn’t want to give Baekhyun the satisfaction of prolonged interest, so he says, “I will debrief with them soon.” Baekhyun’s smirk wavers. When they reach the start of his wing of the manor and Baekhyun doesn’t show a sign of stopping his accompaniment, Taehyung warns, “Your presence is never welcome in my company, but I can promise you that my patience for it is as thin as it has ever been.”

Baekhyun just chuckles, not seeming at all affected or moved by his threats, despite Taehyung briefly acting on them. He just puts his hands up in a condescendingly pacifying manner, like he is humoring him, and backs away.

Taehyung conceals the growl forming in his chest, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him. He just walks the rest of the way to his living quarters so he can freshen up. He throws his clothes in his laundry basket and walks to the bathroom. He turns on the shower as hot as it can go, and he sighs in brief bliss while the hot water warms his skin before it turns icy as it slides down his body.

He washes his hair, his face, and his body. He did not realize just how grimy he felt until he gets to wash it all away.

After an hour, he finally exits the shower and dries off. He considers taking a short nap, but he dresses in his regular clothes rather than his pajamas. He should check up on the happenings at the manor. After drying his hair, he ventures out of his room and towards Namjoon’s office. It is silent in the vicinity, hopefully meaning his guests might be resting so he can check in with his friends in peace.

Namjoon is sitting at the desk in his personal office, gazing out of the window behind his desk that overlooks the back of the manor. Taehyung has not noticed the weather or the progression of the season other than to see the way the sun is shining. The trees are almost barren now, very few colorful leaves clinging to the branches anymore. They are not even piling up on the ground and have already decomposed in the dirt. The sky is currently grey – ironic, now that he would not experience the reprieve from the sun. Both things together with the knowledge that it is cold out make it look exactly like the setting for vampires to live in an old, creaky home.

Namjoon doesn’t turn his chair around until Taehyung says, “Good afternoon.”

He looks amused once he does, because none of them ever stop their teasing at his formal way of speaking – even Namjoon who is closest to him in age and has not fully adapted to each decade’s change in vernacular. “Hey,” he says.

Taehyung sits in one of the chairs on the other side of his desk. “How are you doing?”

“Same old, same old,” Namjoon says. He raises an eyebrow. “What about you?”

Taehyung shrugs. He knows everyone can see it on him – that something has been off, something that he won’t share. “Same, I suppose,” he answers instead of confiding the truth.

“Is there anything you want to talk about?” Namjoon asks.

And instead of answering with what Namjoon is clearly asking about, he says, “I heard the newborn attacked you.”

“You do not have to be so harsh,” Namjoon says, not unkindly. It is a longstanding, exasperating conversation – that Taehyung should stop using the offensive term. ‘Fledgling’ is the accepted word for young vampires, while ‘newborn’ is derogatory and insulting. If newborns acted with respect – for either themselves or others – he would change his manner of speaking. But as such, both parties remain the same. Namjoon lets him off the hook though – with the disrespectful name and with not answering his true question. He sighs and rubs his eyes. “But yeah, he did.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I was fine. Jimin was a little more shaken up though. He wasn’t expecting it, and his reflexes aren’t as good as mine since he is still on the younger side.”

Taehyung’s stomach sinks, not unlike the nausea he has felt from his painful burns. “What happened? Is he okay?”

“You should ask him yourself.”

Taehyung drops their eye contact for a moment. “We are not exactly on speaking terms at the moment.”

Namjoon rolls his eyes with a sigh at him that he was clearly trying to hold back. “He’s fine. Got scratched, a little worse than I did. Probably will have a bruise or two too. He’s fine though.”

“Good,” Taehyung says. He will find it in him to check on him himself too, even though he is not sure if Jimin would even want him to.

Namjoon hesitates. The air around them grows tense as he weighs his words. He settles on, “I’m sure the others have told you this, but if you ever want to talk, you have many of us who would be happy to listen. We’re on your side.”

Taehyung swallows. He looks down at his hands in his lap. “Thank you,” he finally says. “I know.” Then, “The others are here. Everyone can hear everybody.” That is not the reason why he isn’t confiding in anybody. Namjoon knows that too, but it is a good enough excuse for now. It is true; he wants to keep Jungkook from his own family, so his need to keep him from Baekhyun is monumentally more necessary. He doesn’t know how much longer the guests will be here, but he knows the wait will not be short if the newborn is still attacking those around him.

“I think I’ll go check on Jimin now, if there aren’t any more updates to know,” he eventually says when the office dissolves into silence.

Namjoon shakes his head. “No, that’s all.” He hesitates. “You should make up with Jimin.”

Taehyung nods, looking down at his hands in his lap again. He is always assertive and direct, not this quiet-talking person who avoids eye contact. Jimin has taught him to be softer, but it just feels like weakness when he is not here. “Yes, I’d like to.” He stands, wishing Namjoon a good day and heads out of his office.

He walks through the manor, heading toward Jimin, Yoongi, and Hoseok’s wing of it. The warm gothic decor of the main spaces eventually starts to fade off into something cozier and slightly more colorful as he nears their area of the home. More modern and diverse art replaces the paintings and sculptures from past time periods Taehyung has lived in to show the younger lives his friends have lived.

Thankfully he is not accompanied by anyone on his walk here. He is really reaching the end of his patience with Baekyhun, and he wouldn’t hesitate to force him and the newborn to leave, leaving him to deal with it himself – or simply end his immortal life if he continues to harm others. The only reason they are being allowed to stay is because he respects Namjoon, otherwise they would not have been allowed over to begin with, let alone have been permitted to stay this long after everything Baekhyun has tried with him.

As he walks deeper into his friends’ area of the manor, he can hear Jimin and Yoongi talking from their own living area while Hoseok is probably spending time with Seokjin.

He pauses outside of the entryway to their living room, knocking on the wall beside it even though they most likely heard him approaching. Yoongi looks over and nods in greeting, while Jimin stays looking at the television playing a film on a low volume. Their living room continues to be a stark contrast from the rest of the manor, having more of a cottagey, cozy feeling to it. It is all lighter colors with plenty of comfortable places to lounge, overflowing with pillows. Jimin is being swallowed up by a fluffy, cotton-filled beanbag while Yoongi sits on the couch behind him, absentmindedly playing with his hair while they watch the film.

“Good afternoon,” Taehyung says. He feels the barest hint of a relief at the way Jimin’s lips involuntarily twitch at his way of speaking.

“Hey,” Yoongi says. As if he can sense that this interaction would go better with his presence, he thankfully doesn’t leave them to talk privately.

“May I enter?” Taehyung asks, not wanting to invite himself into their space. He feels slightly better when Jimin’s lips twitch again, but then Jimin crosses his arms and resolutely keeps refusing to look at him.

“‘Course,” Yoongi says.

Taehyung steps into the room and slowly walks forward. “May I sit?” he asks, nodding at the chair beside the oversized pillow Jimin is sunken into.

“Stop asking questions,” Yoongi snorts. “You’re being weird.”

Taehyung huffs, and he carefully sits down. The room delves into awkwardness. No one says anything but the character talking on the television.

“Um,” Taehyung starts. “How are you, Jimin? I heard about what happened earlier.”

“It wasn’t earlier,” Jimin scoffs. “It was days ago, which you’d know if you were ever home anymore and didn’t disappear for days at a time without a word.”

Taehyung presses his lips together. He was not really expecting a confrontation, even though he should have. Still, Jimin doesn’t face him, just pretends to be interested in the film.

“How are you?” he asks again without acknowledging that part. “I was told you were harmed.”

“I’m fine,” Jimin mutters.

The room grows silent again. The film changes its scene and becomes quiet with them, making the tense air even more prominent.

Taehyung isn’t sure what to say, what more to ask. He hates this awkwardness. It has never been this way with him and Jimin, even when they have had brief tiffs in the past. It has never lasted this long either.

“How are you?” Yoongi asks him. Jimin glances over at that, briefly showing his vulnerability before he looks away and acts disinterested again.

“I’m fine, I suppose,” Taehyung answers.

“Heard you were burned.”

Jimin looks over again, this time looking for longer, studying his face. “Burned?” he asks. Then he tries to feign disinterest while still inspecting him.

“Yes,” Taehyung says. “I stayed out in the sun for too long. Seokjin helped heal me, and I have burn cream as well until the skin is fully mended and normal again. It was very painful.”

“Your cheeks are still red,” Jimin tells him.

Taehyung nods. “I didn’t allow them to fully heal before going out again.”

Jimin’s jaw clenches, then a profound sadness passes over his face. “Why don’t you–god, why won’t you tell–” He cuts himself off and looks away, shaking his head. Why don’t you talk to me? Why won’t you tell me?

But Taehyung just–he can’t. He can’t.

He watches the pain pass over Jimin’s face when he stands. It makes him ache. But he just can’t.

“Have a good evening,” he says to both of them, then he leaves the room because there is nothing he is able to do to make any of it better.

Evening has already settled in when he leaves their living quarters, so he doesn’t hesitate to venture back outside with the veil of darkness to protect him. He tries to shut off the part of his mind that is riddled with guilt and regret over what is happening with Jimin, and he arrives at the hotel in just minutes. He hasn’t been there to watch if Jungkook might have left, so he goes inside to the front desk just to be sure. He is greeted by a different man rather than the woman from before, and this one looks at him with more personal interest than his colleague did.

“Hello,” Taehyung says. “I’ve lost my room key and would like to request another.”

“Of course,” the man says. “What room would that be? I will have to see your license to confirm that it matches the reservation as well.”

“Room six-thirteen,” Taehyung says.

He pulls out his wallet as the man types on the computer. With his license in his hand ready to pass over, the man says, “Oh, it looks like the room is vacant.”

“Vacant?”

The man nods. “The guest checked out at one o’clock.” Taehyung looks at his watch.

That was five hours ago.

He finally says, “I wasn’t aware. Thank you.” He leaves without another word. He walks out of the hotel lobby and into the night.

He takes steadying breaths.

He doesn't know if he can do this again.

His mind shuts off, but not because he becomes objective in his search like a predator hunting their prey again. It is because he is detaching from himself, dissociating. He does not even criticize himself for his carelessness again; he just walks to the bar. He does not rush or hurry or grow frantic. He makes his way there as if he is wandering aimlessly, barely seeing anything he passes.

Even before he arrives, he knows the boy is not there. He knows he would probably not return so soon, and he does not smell him. He does not want to think about how he cannot feel him, how something in him has been able to sense him. He does not know if he is slipping into further insanity for believing it is something there, or if it truly is. Either option scares him. Still, just to be sure, he walks into the bar. He looks around, barely seeing anything, and leaves before the bartender can spot him.

Feeling as if he is wading half-aware through a dream he has experienced before, he leaves the bar and makes his way to the park. He knows he will not find the boy on his bench either.

Every step he takes through the park, though, begins to awaken something in him.

He can’t do this again.

He should have dealt with his hunger and the sunlight and stayed outside of the hotel.

He should not have left, because he has lost the boy again.

He can’t do this again.

He doesn’t have a choice. His pace quickens as his senses sharpen. Even when his resolve heightens and a fire burns within him, it does not help him find him. Every sidewalk he follows holds no sign of him, no traces of his scent lingering anywhere.

He growls at every person he passes, cursing himself in his head, barreling through the streets, ready to burn the city down so maybe he will see him standing.

He walks beneath the rusted stairs leading up to a set of elevated train tracks that hovers over the city’s streets, sidestepping puddles gathered beneath that spill from careless humans waiting in the station above. He is crossing the street when he freezes.

His head snaps to his right, even though there wasn’t any movement or sound. All he sees are empty sidewalks as the city sleeps. Everything is dark in the shadow of the train tracks above. He waits for several seconds, then he shakes his head and continues walking.

With another blow of autumn wind, he smells it.

It is the boy’s scent. It is stronger than it has ever been. It harmonizes with the scent of the rust on the train tracks, losing the warm underlying notes and becoming more metallic, so much so he barely caught it.

Taehyung’s stomach drops. He follows the shadows beneath the station, lights burnt out in the tunnel it creates. He walks further and further until the scent leads him to an alley that veers off from the street. He proceeds down it into the darkness. He is sure his eyes are bright red, even after having just fed. He takes deep breaths to try to steady himself. Not because of the unexpected, dense wave of the boy’s scent he is hit with, but because of what he knows it is from.

He rushes down the alley, overwhelmed with the scent of garbage. He splashes through puddles gathered in potholes that are the result of leaking trash bags. He runs deeper and deeper into the alley, the boy’s scent only getting stronger.

He finally sees him.

He is on the ground, collapsed as if he were dropped carelessly with limbs contorted uncomfortably, hidden from view by the dumpster. On top of him is a man, his face in his neck.

Jungkook makes eye contact with him, but it is as if he is not seeing him. His eyes are glossy like the surface of the puddles around him that light up silver with the light of the moon. His gaze is far away, his eyelids slowly blinking like it’s taking everything to keep them open. Like soon they are going to close. With the scent of blood heavy in the air, with more soaked through his shirt and dripping from different wounds on his body, it looks like he has just seconds until that moment comes.

Taehyung only knows that he has done anything because he hears the sound of the vampire thrown across the alley so hard that the bricks crumble, almost enough that Taehyung is scared that the building might collapse. He does not even need to dismember him to ensure his life is no more, because he will not be able to come back from the way his skull has been crushed so severely that it is difficult to tell what it once was.

Taehyung crouches down in front of Jungkook and takes his face into his shaking hands. His touch is so delicate it is difficult to believe he did such harm only a moment ago. “J-Jungkook?” he asks, his voice trembling as much as his body. His palms become red with the blood seeping from different places on Jungkook’s head. The boy’s eyes close for longer than they blink at him. “J-Jungkook, darling, no. Open your eyes, sweetheart, stay with me.”

Taehyung looks into Jungkook’s eyes, the stars in them that are beginning to flicker out. Everything around Taehyung flickers too, his surroundings looking different before they change once again, everything around him flickering and changing each time he blinks, foggy and strange like he is somewhere else altogether before the stark reality returns when Jungkook doesn’t open his eyes. Taehyung can feel his consciousness wavering, the way the twitching from the trauma to his body is not even there anymore. He chokes out, “H-Hurts,” the word barely there.

Taehyung swallows, feeling sick, feeling panicked, feeling like part of him is breaking and ending. He is overwhelmed from the scent of his blood, from watching this happen, and it is why his thoughts are so jumbled, it is why he feels as if he hears the emptiness in his chest echo the no, no, no playing in his head, the sound of his begging, the cries from his lips, why it all sounds so familiar to him, because he has begged so much before. His desperation claws at him, every ounce of desperation and despair he has ever felt is drowning him at once as he watches his boy slip further and further away.

“I can–I c-can make it better, darling,” Taehyung says, his voice cracking and trembling but so, so soft. Jungkook’s eyes open just slightly, as if he cannot manage more than that. “Would you like me to? I can make it better. I can make it okay.” He thinks he sees a barely-there nod of Jungkook’s head, but it could be his hands shaking so terribly that he is shaking his head for him. “Okay, just–just close your eyes, darling boy. It will be okay. It will be okay, sweetheart.” He thinks Jungkook might nod again, and his eyes close again. Taehyung begs and pleads that it is not too late, that they will open again. He moves into his neck, his skin soaked in so much blood that he cannot even see the color of his skin beneath it. Taehyung takes a deep breath to calm himself, willing himself to find comfort in his scent to ground him rather than getting carried away from the taste he will finally be given. Every second he waits is another spent with the life draining from his boy, so he does not hesitate. He buries his fangs in Jungkook’s neck.

Jungkook doesn’t even react. A cry gets stuck in Taehyung’s throat. He presses his hand to Jungkook’s chest, and he feels it still stuttering from the pain of his attack. He is still here, it is okay, it is okay. Taehyung’s eyes squeeze shut, and he pushes all of the venom he has into Jungkook. Enough to dull the pain, enough to turn him. He has never turned anyone before, nor has he given any of his venom either. He doesn’t know how much is required to turn someone, he does not know how to do it, but he stays like he is, giving him more and more to make sure it invades his body, to make sure his life is taken from him to be given a new one instead. Jungkook goes completely limp in his hold, but Taehyung does not stop. He imagines the venom invading his body, coursing through his veins.

He finally leans back when he remembers there is something he needs to do. A whimper leaves him when he licks his lips and finally tastes Jungkook’s blood, but he does not let himself get carried away. He brings his own wrist to his mouth and bites it hard enough to create deep wounds that his own blood drips from. He brings his wrist to Jungkook’s mouth and forces his lips apart, dripping his blood into Jungkook’s mouth. He does not know how much he needs, he does not know how to do any of this, but he bleeds into Jungkook’s mouth, giving someone a taste of his blood for the first time, until his wounds close themselves.

Finally, Taehyung gently takes Jungkook into his arms. He cradles him close as he stands. “It will be okay, my love,” he says to him quietly. “I’ve got you now. My love. My love. I’ve got you.”

Chapter Text

Taehyung throws open the door on his veranda and bursts into his bedroom. The door slams against the wall, the autumn wind blowing inside and kicking up the curtains around him. He crosses the room, hearing droplets of blood meet the rug, then the hardwood floors, creating a trail that leads to them.

As gently as he can, he sets Jungkook down onto his bed. He is so bloody that he blends right into his dark red duvet, covered in more blood than visible skin.

Taehyung rushes across his room and throws open his bedroom door. “J-Jimin!” he shouts, his voice cracking, the desperation so apparent even in the simple call of his name. He rushes back to the bed, sitting beside Jungkook and studying his face, looking for any sign of life, or life in death. He looks so gory, so unrecognizable that Taehyung cannot even see beyond it.

Jimin bursts into the room only a second after his cry for him. “Tae? Wh–” he starts to ask, then his eyes widen further seeing the bloody boy on his bed. Taehyung watches his understanding finally click into place.

Taehyung knows he has no right to ask Jimin for anything, but it’s–it’s Jimin and–he–and– “How do I–how do I know–” Jimin shuts and locks the bedroom door, then he is by his side. “How do I know it worked?” he asks. He tugs at his hair, squeezes his eyes shut, feels nauseous from the scent of his boy’s blood so heavy in the air. He can barely choke the words out, can barely look at Jungkook when he looks so horrible but can’t look away for fear of letting him out of his sight, as if in the seconds without his eyes on him, his life will permanently slip away. “How do I know it worked? How do I know he is not dead? H-How–”

“Tae, Tae, it’s okay,” Jimin says, sounding as frantic as Taehyung feels. Even when sounding stressed and anxious and panicked though, his voice helps soothe Taehyung. “It’s working.”

“But how–how can you tell? How–”

“Look, Tae, look. His eyelids. Look at his eyelids. You can see his eyes moving.” Beneath the blood painted on them, Taehyung can see it. It is so subtle and small, but it’s there, almost as if Jungkook were dreaming. “And look at his injuries,” Jimin says, pointing toward a big gash on the side of Jungkook’s head, looking as if it came from his head hitting against the brick wall or the dumpster he was hidden behind. “You can see they’re healing. They’re closing. See? Along the edges?” And Taehyung does see. At each end of the wide, deep cuts, the skin is a different shade from the rest of his blood-soaked skin, like it’s already begun to heal. And it wouldn’t be doing that if the venom wasn’t healing him.

“It’s working,” Jimin says, sounding calmer now since he sees his words have done the same to Taehyung. “It’s okay.”

Taehyung can’t speak. He can’t move. He can’t look away.

It’s working. He did it right. His venom is saving Jungkook. He’ll be okay.

He barely notices when Jimin disappears. He doesn’t notice anything except for the movement of his closed eyes – proof that he is still alive. Or as alive as Taehyung and Jimin and the others are.

He jumps when Jimin presses something wet into his hand. He finally looks away and sees he is holding a wet rag, and there is one in Jimin’s hand too. “Here, let’s clean him up,” Jimin says softly. “Let’s clean him. Don’t want him to wake up all covered in blood, right? It’d be scary for him. Let’s wipe him down.”

Taehyung does not move yet, so Jimin takes Jungkook’s limp hand and starts gently clearing it of any blood. Jimin glances at him as he does it, and Taehyung sees him sigh in relief. He watches Jimin finally feel a little more settled into their friendship again, because he sees that his best friend still trusts him – enough to let him touch him, to be here, to not be attacked for being near.

Taehyung will fix this with him. He will. It might take a while, both because he treated him so unfairly and because – Taehyung now realizes with an unplaceable feeling – he has a fledgling, but he will fix it.

He stands and moves to the other side of Jimin, sitting on the bed beside Jungkook’s head. His beautiful Jungkook, looking so gruesome. Jungkook will never hurt like this again. He will never be in distress or danger or pain like this again. “You will be okay, my love,” Taehyung whispers. He begins to gently wipe the dried blood from his cheek, watching some of it flake off onto his sheets. “I’ve got you now.”

He brushes Jungkook’s hair back, which seems to not have been touched by any blood as it all dripped down his face and body. It is good, because it will not be necessary to figure out a way to wash his hair. He will do the best he can with everywhere else. He clears the dried blood from his eyebrows, brushing over the fine hairs with his thumb to feel the softness of them and ensure no blood is clinging on still. So, so gently, he washes around his eyes next. He never wipes hard enough to leave even the slightest trace of pink from the wash rag on his skin, so it takes quite a while for him to clean his face. Long enough that by the time he has moved onto his neck, Jimin is finished cleaning the rest of his body. Long enough that Taehyung had forgotten Jimin is even here, and he jumps when he hears his voice.

“We should get him into some fresh clothes,” Jimin says softly.

Taehyung sits back and looks at Jungkook’s face as a whole, rather than the individual parts he was cleaning. Jungkook just looks like he’s asleep – a view Taehyung has grown rather intimate with these past few weeks. He looks the same way he did sleeping on the park bench. He does not look like he is in pain from the painful venom taking over his body, or from all of the injuries he received. He looks like he is asleep. Taehyung feels himself grow calm, because Jungkook is inside, in a big bed in a warm home, and he will no longer have to sleep somewhere so cold and unsafe anymore, as long as he wants to stay. Taehyung does not think about if he doesn’t want to stay.

He settles more, too, when he sees Jungkook no longer covered in blood. His delicate skin, which is turning just a half-shade paler, because the blood beneath it does not show itself the way it once used to. His eyelashes delicately resting together. That beauty mark beneath his lips that Taehyung can never look away from.

“Yes,” Taehyung finally says to Jimin. He stands, but he stops instead of walking away to go to his closet.

Jimin is sitting on the bed where he has been this whole time, his hands in his lap, looking up at Taehyung after helping him like the angel he is. But Taehyung’s closet is across the room, its own room in itself. It has a door and walls that would be between himself and Jungkook, not to mention the distance itself. Without Taehyung there, there would be nothing between him and Jimin. They would be alone together – someone else around Jungkook, and when he is so vulnerable right now.

He sees Jimin understand. His best friend says, “Why don’t you stay, and I’ll grab him something to wear?” There isn’t an ounce of offense in his tone. Taehyung feels guilty that it probably implies, again, that he does not trust Jimin. It is not the case though; it’s just… this is his fledgling now. He is in his care. It is not about Jimin; it is the fact that he is another person at all, and his sire is not there.

Taehyung sits back down on the bed when Jimin heads to the closet. He keeps himself aware of the sound of Jimin nearby, but he keeps his eyes fully focused on Jungkook.

He hopes Jungkook isn’t in any pain. Every turning he has seen has been painful and violent, including his own. He remembers thrashing and fighting and screaming and sobbing and begging for the pain to be over, and he has seen it many times too.

But Jungkook just lies here, peaceful. He could be asleep. He could be dead if Taehyung didn’t see little signs of life. So many of his wounds have already healed, he can see now that he isn’t covered in blood. Taehyung hopes it takes the pain away with them. He hopes that his stillness and unconsciousness means he isn’t feeling any pain, even as the venom poisons his body.

Jimin returns with some clothes – just a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, both black and oversized. “How do you want to do this?” Jimin asks, as if he can sense Taehyung’s extreme apprehension in letting anybody close to Jungkook, let alone rid him of his clothes. Taehyung wishes they didn’t need to invade Jungkook’s privacy in this way, but Taehyung knows waking up is going to be a very uncomfortable experience, so waking up clean will probably go a long way. (And you have been invading his privacy from the moment you saw him, his brain unhelpfully supplies.)

“We can just… we can just work together,” Taehyung says – almost grits out. This is just Jimin, he tells himself. Jimin has never had ill intentions towards anything in his entire life. Even if he did, Taehyung could stop him before anything even started. Still, Jungkook is his, and anyone near him at all makes him on high alert.

Jimin nods, but he is clearly as hesitant as Taehyung is, for a different reason. Taehyung moves slightly behind Jungkook so he can lift the upper half of his body. He supports Jungkook’s head by resting it against his collarbone, then he lifts him with his hands flat on his back. Jimin pulls Jungkook’s ruined shirt up for him. So much dried blood has seeped into it, some of it cracking with the movement of the fabric and flaking down onto the bed. Taehyung helps him guide the hole of his shirt over his head, then he lifts each arm too until Jimin can throw the ruined shirt aside.

Rather than dressing him, Jimin takes one of the rags they were using a minute ago. He wipes away some more blood that seeped through the fabric – along his collarbone, his clavicle. He is fast and clinical, just cleaning him as his best friend watches him like a predator. Taehyung only looks at his body to see if there is any blood they missed, just seeing his skin rather than his body itself. Jimin unfolds the clean t-shirt, and they get it on him easily. He and Jimin work together so seamlessly no matter what they’re doing, never having to really communicate because they know each other so well.

Taehyung gently rests Jungkook back down. He sets his head on the pillow, and he brushes some of the hair out of his closed eyes. Before he can get lost in just staring at him, he turns the opposite direction to focus on his lower half. This time, he is the one to peel Jungkook’s pants off, pulling his socks off with them. Thankfully his boxers appear alright and free of any signs of his attack, and there are only some flecks of blood near his ankles that must have seeped through his socks. Once it is washed away, Taehyung puts the sweatpants on for him, adjusting the fabric of his clothes so that it won’t be uncomfortable for him when he wakes up. He leans back to look at him, and it almost looks as if he wasn't left for dead. Well, it would if the sheets weren’t covered in blood too.

“We should change the sheets,” Jimin says, as if he can read his mind. Taehyung sometimes thinks they can. He nods. “I can get Yoongi to help? That way you can move, uh… him around, and we can do the work.” Taehyung realizes he doesn’t know Jungkook’s name. No one here knows Jungkook’s name except for him.

Yoongi would add another person to this. That means two people would know about Jungkook. Two people would be near him, when he is fragile and so vulnerable. Taehyung will have to watch two people in the room with them, have to protect him against two fully-grown vampires.

It’s just Yoongi, he tries to tell himself. It’s just Jimin. It’s Yoongi and Jimin. He trusts them with his life. He trusts them the most out of everyone he knows. It is just Jimin, his best friend, and Yoongi, the person who is good enough for Jimin to love him. It is just his friends. These are his best friends. He trusts them with everything. They can be trusted with this. He finally nods.

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” Jimin says. “I’ll go grab him and get some new sheets.”

Taehyung doesn’t say anything. He just sits on the edge of the bed beside Jungkook as the door to his room opens and closes again.

He brushes Jungkook’s hair behind his ear. Jungkook just lays there peacefully asleep, as if nothing is amiss.

“I hope you will not be angry with me,” Taehyung whispers as he trails his knuckles down his cheek. He knows being asked to be turned when seconds from dying is not the most steadfast show of consent, but he hopes when he wakes, he will not regret giving it. “I will devote my life to caring for you, my darling. You will never have to ache or struggle again. Never again.” He is hit with a strange, brief feeling. It reminds him of moments he has looked to the sky. When he can see all of the stars that make up a constellation, but he, for some reason, cannot see the constellation itself. It is a strange feeling he is left with no further, because there is a soft knock at the door.

Taehyung snaps his head over when the door opens, his body stiffening. It is only Jimin and Yoongi. They enter slowly and carefully. Jimin offers him a smile that Taehyung does not return, and Yoongi nods at him in greeting.

Jimin sets the pile of linens down on a chair in his sitting area, then he comes over to survey how they will do this. Taehyung does not look away; he watches every minute movement they make.

“Okay, how ‘bout we pull the duvet out from under him,” Jimin finally says, “and we can throw the pillows down onto the floor too. Yoongi can change the duvet cover and pillow cases while I change the sheet, and you can move, uh, him around when I need you to.”

Taehyung swallows. “His name is Jungkook,” he finally says.

Yoongi slowly nods while Jimin says, “Jungkook,” trying the name out. Taehyung thought it would make him bristle, maybe cause a threat to slip from his lips. Instead, it fills him with warmth. It makes him feel more real. Jimin knows about him, and Yoongi too.

It is no longer just his own, but that only makes it more real. This is Jungkook, and he’s real. Jungkook is his fledgling. He is no longer his own. He is Jungkook’s sire.

Before he can think further on that – that he is a sire for the very first time in his long, long life – Yoongi and Jimin start setting the pillows on the floor. Taehyung lifts Jungkook’s head up so carefully and gently, one hand on the back of his neck so he does not make it ache. He rests his head down on his leg so he can pull the pillow out from under him himself. He may be allowing his friends to be so close to him now, but he will not allow them, or anyone, to get anywhere near Jungkook’s neck.

Once his many pillows are on the floor, the three work together to get the duvet from beneath Jungkook. Jimin looks at him hesitantly, his hands held out. Taehyung does not nod or shake his head, but Jimin reads him so well that he knows it’s okay. With his hands on Jungkook’s lower back, he lifts, and Yoongi slides the duvet free and throws it aside.

As Jimin unhooks the edges of the sheets from the corners of the mattress, Yoongi efficiently changes his pillowcases for him – still the same dark red silk that his bed always is. Without any difficulty at all, he and Jimin get the sheet changed, and Jimin assists Yoongi in changing the duvet cover – this one with velvet paisley accents in the same deep burgundy.

Taehyung carefully rests Jungkook’s head on a pillow again. He slides the duvet over him, and if he is tucking him in to sleep.

“He’s… he’s going to wake up, right?” Taehyung asks either of them without looking away from Jungkook. He barely recognizes his own voice, how small and scared it is. Jungkook didn’t move or react the entire time they changed the bedding. He hasn’t reacted the entire time he has been moved and maneuvered all night. Not since he almost died in his arms. Another star appears in the constellation, but Taehyung is too scared by the darkness to be able to see through it.

“He’ll wake up,” Yoongi assures him. There isn’t an ounce of doubt in his tone. “You’ve never, uh, sired anyone, right? Never turned anyone?” Taehyung shakes his head, still keeping his eyes on Jungkook’s sleeping form. His eyelashes look so delicate. He looks so delicate, so defenseless. “Do you want me to bring Namjoon here? So he can tell you more about it?”

That would make a third person privy to Jungkook’s existence.

They will all know about Jungkook eventually, he tells himself. He wants to know everything he needs to know to be able to care for his fledgling in the way he needs. He is afraid it will not come naturally to him. It is not ingrained in any of them: how to be a sire. No turned vampires even have a sire, really; they just have the vampire who turned them and left them on their own. Sires are so rare it is almost as if they are a myth humans made up along with all of the other little things out there. He is afraid he will do something wrong, because he does not know how to have a fledgling. It is not ingrained in them to care for another vampire so closely.

But, despite that, he thinks that even knowing nothing at all about any of this, he will be able to. He knows that he devoted his life to Jungkook the second he found him. It is just in a different way now, this commitment to him. Jungkook is his fledgling. Something in Taehyung blooms, like the flowers that blossom in his garden at night. He will get to take care of Jungkook now. Fully, openly, wholly. Someone’s life is in his hands now though, and it is scary. It is scary that he is a sire now. Others take it so lightly, don’t ever even consider themselves sires at all. Taehyung is scared. This is not a situation he ever thought he would find himself in. It changes everything. About himself, about the manor, about his friends, about his life.

“Yes, that would be good,” he finally says. He does look away from Jungkook now, to his friends that have been watching him. “Thank you both. Really. I can’t say how appreciative I am for both of you.” He looks at Jimin and feels an ache in his stomach. “And–and Jimin. We’ll talk, yeah? Soon.”

Jimin gives him a soft smile. It feels like things are finally okay between them. Jimin understands. “Of course,” he says. “We’re okay. Just say my name and I’ll come to you for whatever you need me for, okay?”

Taehyung nods, swallowing thickly. “I love you, Chim.”

Jimin’s smile somehow turns sweeter. “I love you, Tae.”

Taehyung looks at Yoongi. “You too, Yoongi.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Yoongi rolls his eyes. “Love you too.” It makes Taehyung chuckle. “Call for me if you need me for anything too.”

Taehyung nods. “Thank you both. So much.”

They nod at him and offer parting smiles, but Taehyung’s focus has already moved back to Jungkook. The door closes behind his friends, leaving just the two of them. But not for long, because there is a soft knock at his door only seconds later. “Who is it?” Taehyung asks, his voice coming out harsher than intended.

“Just me,” Namjoon’s voice says.

“Come in.”

Namjoon slowly enters, as if to show he means no harm. He closes and locks the door behind him. “Hey, Tae,” he says.

“Hello,” Taehyung says without looking away from Jungkook.

“Heard you have a fledgling now,” he says casually, as if it is not the huge deal that it is – for someone to be a sire at all, but for that person to be Taehyung specifically. He is certain that his friends are just as disbelieving as he is. Probably more, because they do not know the confusion and acceptance he has been through for weeks. Still, he is certain he feels as blindsided as them.

It makes Taehyung laugh, and it temporarily breaks him from his stupor. He looks away from Jungkook, to where Namjoon has taken a seat in his sitting area. He is dressed casually, wearing loose trousers and a baggy t-shirt, his shaved head honey-colored. He looks the picture of calm and ease, and it helps instill those feelings in Taehyung too. Namjoon always has a grounding presence.

“I do,” Taehyung says.

“And you have never been anyone's sire before, correct?” Taehyung shakes his head. “Have you ever turned anybody before?”

Taehyung’s eyebrows almost meet in the middle. “No,” he says firmly. “I would never turn anybody and leave them without a sire to guide them.” The vast majority of others do, but he would not. He may not be warm and nurturing, but he is not cruel. That is debatable, a voice in his head says. I do not want to be cruel, he corrects.

Namjoon raises his hands in a pacifying manner. “Just making sure. I didn’t think you would have.”

“How long will it be before he wakes?” Taehyung asks, getting right to it.

“Jimin told me that he was a little bloody when you brought him in.” Taehyung chuckles again. He feels grateful that Namjoon is trying to make light of this. It feels more like him trying to calm his obvious nerves rather than making it seem unserious.

“Just a little,” he says with a wry laugh.

“Do you know how close he was to death before you injected your venom?”

Taehyung finds that he has to hold back a whimper thinking about it. He was so close. He watched his life slipping away. “I think if I hadn’t bitten him the second I did, he would have died.”

Namjoon nods thoughtfully. “Contrary to how one might assume,” and Taehyung is the one to get teased for his old way of speaking, “the transformation tends to take longer when humans are closer to death than when they’re fully alive and healthy. It seems like it would be easier and shorter since they’re already so close to death, and the venom would just be the nail in the coffin, so to speak.

“It tends to be the opposite, however. The venom can’t seamlessly permeate the human’s body, shutting everything down and taking it over just for them to become one of us – sometimes only minutes later. In his case, the venom has to heal all of the parts of him that were harmed first: from the puncture holes on his neck or scratches or surface wounds, to his internal organs and his blood loss. It takes longer to heal, then to take a hold of.”

Taehyung slowly nods. That makes sense. Usually his own surface wounds would heal within a minute or so – apart from the burns on his face, since those are a different kind of wound. In Jungkook’s case, Taehyung can still see a few spots on him that are only now beginning to scab over. Cuts on his palms, on his temple, as if from dragging along the bricks he was found against, trying to get away. They were wounds he received as a human, so his body did not have the tools it needed to heal itself. It is as if he is behind in his transformation, because there are other things that need to get done first.

“If he was turned just an hour or so ago,” Namjoon says thoughtfully, “I’d predict he might wake in a day or two? That’s just my guess though. I think it will take at least a full day for the venom to do its job and allow him to fully regain consciousness.”

“Is he in pain?” Taehyung asks. He gently brushes through Jungkook’s hair, dragging his fingers along his scalp as if he could ease any of the pain he might be feeling.

“I don’t think so,” Namjoon says. “I can’t say for certain, but I don’t think so. I think it’s the same way it would be if he were saved and kept human. If he had longer to live and was brought to the hospital, he’d most likely be knocked out there for a few days while his body recovers itself. I think it’s most likely the same now. Just feels like he’s asleep.”

Taehyung hopes he’s correct. It makes his chest ache thinking of him in silent pain as this process takes so long. “What will it be like when he does wake?”

Namjoon sighs at this. “I will try to have Baekhyun’s group out of here by then,” he says.

Taehyung had completely forgotten about any of that. He realizes this was a very inconvenient time to bring a new vampire into the household, because they already have a rabid young vampire whose behavior will most likely match how Jungkook’s will be. They are the inconvenience, though. Not Jungkook.

He feels like he should apologize for adding more stress to Namjoon’s plate. Namjoon already does this all the time, and is doing it currently. This is poor timing for him, but he does not apologize. He will not apologize for bringing Jungkook here. He didn’t do this for fun; Jungkook was dying.

“Most fledglings are rabid when they wake up,” Namjoon continues. “I’ll bring a big supply of blood bags to keep in here that he can drain when he wakes up, which will hopefully quench his thirst right away. Someone will have to make another hospital trip though, because he will most likely go through our fridge within a few hours.

“All of your attention should be focused on keeping him fed, and keeping him contained. That will be what your first several days will have to be centered around. Since some human habits will still be ingrained in him, he will still need to sleep as he would as a human, which is good because it passes some time easily that will hopefully lead him further from the beginning stage of his new vampirehood. Does he…” Namjoon’s tone turns hesitant as he tries to figure out how to speak what is on his mind. “Does he know what he is in for? Does he know about what he’s going to become?”

He doesn’t even know me, Taehyung wants to say. “He doesn’t,” he says. He glances over to Namjoon, and his friend thoughtfully nods like he is always doing.

“That part of it is not something I can really assist you in,” Namjoon says regretfully. “How you introduce him to this new way of life and explain what brought him here and what his life will be like from now on depends on the two of you.” Taehyung wishes he could tell him that there is no ‘two of you,’ because Jungkook doesn’t know him at all. They do not have a way of speaking or interacting for him to know how to speak to Jungkook in a way that will speak to him. He doesn’t give that away though. He fears it will appear as if he turned Jungkook because he had his eye on him, because he wanted a toy. He doesn’t think his friends would think that of him, that they know him enough to not jump to that conclusion, but he isn’t willing to take that chance.

He just nods in acknowledgment. He will figure it out.

“It would make it easier on you if someone else were here with you when he wakes up,” Namjoon says. “Me, Jimin, anyone. It’s pretty… intense when a new vampire wakes up, especially paired with the new strength they don’t know they have yet – that they don’t know how to control yet.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Taehyung says as soon as he’s finished talking. He already dislikes having anyone else in the room with them now. He does not want anyone near them when Jungkook wakes up. “I will be okay.”

Namjoon stays for a while more. He tells him more things he would benefit from knowing and things he has learned through his time dealing with newborns, but he mostly tries to be encouraging and reassuring about what is to come. He thanks Namjoon several times, but he sighs in relief when he finally goes.

He looks back at Jungkook and finds that he has been running his fingers through his hair. “You will be okay,” he whispers to him. “I will do everything I can to try to make this easy for you.”

Reluctantly, he stands. He walks over to his sitting area and brings one of his tufted arm chairs beside the bed. Even though he wants to be close, he wants to give Jungkook some space even if he isn’t conscious right now.

He just feels so… at ease. He is nervous about what is to come, about having to explain all of this to Jungkook and try to teach him to have control over himself. He is nervous about how Jungkook will confront all of this. If he will confront him. But sitting here, watching him in his home, he just feels calm. There will be no more sleeping outside on a park bench, no more having to live in the cold. No more worrying about him when he is away. He has a home and a bed and will have the sustenance he needs. He has somewhere to live, where he will be treated like royalty, like the heavenly creature Taehyung sees him as.

He knows he should think about what he will do when he wakes up. He should create a script for how to explain all of this to him, how to approach it. He almost asks for advice when Yoongi comes to drop off quite a big supply of blood, but he wants to be alone with Jungkook more than he wants the help, so he lets Yoongi leave as soon as he sets the box of blood bags down.

Unable to stop himself, he stands and walks to the bed again. He carefully sits down and looks at Jungkook. The wounds he is able to see from here have all healed, leaving behind smooth, unblemished skin. He knows several others have told him so, but he sees that he really is going to be okay. He’s going to live.

Taehyung’s breath hitches in his throat when he feels something. It is a strange sensation, almost like an odd flicker inside of him. His eyes dart down, and his heart leaps. Jungkook’s hand twitches, his fingers moving ever so slightly. Taehyung’s hand rushes to his chest when the strange sensation returns. He would say that everything in him turns cold at the realization, but everything… everything in him turns warm.

Taehyung’s heart is beating. He feels the patter of it.

After nearly two hundred years, he feels a gentle movement in his chest.

His heart is beating. He feels it beating faster, feels the soft tapping beneath his palm.

He is Jungkook’s sire, and his heart is beating, because it is producing blood for his fledgling.

And it is not only that, but there is… there is this–this feeling. His vision almost swims. It is so slow, and he can feel every single second of it as it gets closer and closer. Fuller and fuller.

The emptiness in his chest, the darkness, the hollowness that had wrapped around his non-beating heart… The emptiness so profound it has sent him to his knees so often. A warmth slowly begins to appear, and it begins to spread. It begins to spread out, like a cat stretching out in the sun to take a nap. It eclipses the darkness, the emptiness. No, it does not eclipse it; it fills it.

He watches as Jungkook’s eyes slowly blink open. He feels it in his whole body. The way it flickers with each slow blink as Jungkook wakes up. He feels it light up slowly, taking its time. He feels it there in his chest, where he has felt so empty, where his heart now beats faster.

Jungkook shouldn’t be awake so soon. He thought it was going to be a couple more days at least. He does not feel prepared, but he forces himself to be ready. It will come naturally. It has for weeks, because he is not cruel, and he is not empty. He leans over to quickly pull the box of blood bags closer so they are within reach when Jungkook fully regains consciousness.

But he is too slow.

Suddenly a heavy, strong body is on top of him. He is tackled down onto the bed, being held down as if it requires no effort at all. Before he can even wrap his head around what is happening, there is a sharp pain in his neck. Pointed teeth are shoved beneath his skin, and blood is taken from him. He pictures it flowing from his neck, pouring from him because of how much is being taken. He pictures it filling Jungkook’s mouth for him to swallow it down. He is taking his blood from him so he will be able to live. He is taking part of him so that he can go on.

Taehyung melts into the bed. His eyes slowly flutter closed. His head falls to the side to give the little fledgling better access. His hands find Jungkook’s sides. He holds him there to steady his fledgling as he feeds on him. It does not feel very good because Jungkook doesn’t know how to inject his venom to dull the sting, but it is as if Jungkook has pushed every drop of venom into him because of how pleased he feels. It feels like he’s the one feeding, the way warmth spreads through him, coating his tongue and sliding down his throat so easily, feeding him, sating him. Taehyung’s thumbs brush back and forth on Jungkook’s sides while his eyes stay closed, a subtle curve to his lips. “Take whatever you need from me, my love,” he says softly. The words sound like he’s hearing them through a dream.

Animalistic noises come from Jungkook as he feeds for the first time. Growls and grunts, the wet sound of him sucking on his skin, messy swallows paired with the feeling of blood seeping down his neck before it is licked away and fangs are buried in his neck again.

Taehyung thinks if he were a human, he would be dead by now. Jungkook has taken so much and keeps taking more and more, enough that it could be worrisome. Taehyung has never felt so pleased.

It feels like entire minutes later that suddenly the weight from on top of his body is gone all at once.

Across the bed, knees to his chest and arms around his legs to make himself small, sits Jungkook. His eyes are wide and frantic. They are dark red and darting all around the room, pupils dilated, at war with the crimson of his irises. Blood has stained his lips and has dripped down his chin. Taehyung notices that his own blood drips down onto the beauty mark beneath his lip. There are veins visible through his skin, but nowhere near how they probably looked the second before he fed. Jungkook keeps looking all around him as if his attention is being jolted in every direction. He is wincing at the light, shaking his head at all of the new sounds he can probably hear.

“Jungkook,” Taehyung says softly as he sits up. Jungkook jerks his head over to look at him. Black pupils swallow the redness of his eyes. He looks crazed and rabid, like he is moments from attacking again. But he just looks so scared too, like a frightened little animal backed into a corner. Taehyung holds his hands up, trying to show he won’t attack. Jungkook’s eyes dart to his neck again, where Taehyung can still feel blood drying from his messy meal. “Here, take from my wrist, darling,” he says softly. He holds his arm out to him. Jungkook trembles as he looks down at it, his eyes darting from his wrist to his eyes and back again. “It’s okay, my love. I promise. Drink from my wrist.”

Even though his eyes and his face convey hesitance, his actions do not. He snatches Taehyung’s arm and yanks him closer, and his teeth sink into his wrist. It stings more this time piercing through the thinner skin of his wrist, but he starts to feel it even less because now he can see Jungkook. He can see the way Jungkook’s eyes squeeze tightly shut as he drinks from him, the way his chest heaves and his throat bobs when he swallows. The way he looks so crazed and desperate, and consuming part of Taehyung feeds that further while sating it too.

Reluctantly, Taehyung moves closer until he is right in front of Jungkook. Hesitantly, he reaches a hand out. Slowly, his fingers glide through Jungkook’s hair. Jungkook’s eyes shoot open, and he jerks his body back, his fangs sliding out of his arm.

He doesn’t go away though. He stays where he is, an unreadable look on his face as Taehyung’s hand stays still where it is. Slowly, Taehyung’s fingers glide the rest of the way through his hair. Jungkook looks like he doesn’t know what to do. His eyes are darting between Taehyung’s face and up to where his hand makes another run through his hair.

Taehyung lifts his other arm again. “Here, darling. Drink.”

Finally looking unsure about it, as if he didn’t just take pints of blood over the last minute, Jungkook hesitantly brings Taehyung’s wrist back to his mouth. Jungkook looks down at it, moving Taehyung’s arm closer to his lips, then a little bit further away, then closer again before pausing. He finally slowly sinks his fangs in. Taehyung could start sobbing, because he can tell Jungkook was trying to line his teeth up with the puncture holes he already made.

Jungkook is more calm when he feeds this time. He drinks at a slower pace, his body no longer tense, eyes not squeezed shut. Taehyung continues to slowly brush through his hair, trying to soothe him and reassure him that this is okay. Jungkook looks over at him. Once they make eye contact, he quickly looks away, down at the bed before closing his eyes.

“Do you… do you know what vampires are?” Taehyung asks. He almost laughs to himself. Jungkook’s fangs are in his body. Jungkook nods. “Did you know that they are real?” To Taehyung’s extreme surprise, Jungkook nods again. “O-Oh…” Taehyung says. His hand in Jungkook’s hair freezes, then drops away. He doesn’t hear a whine, but he thinks he can feel the vibration of it wanting to come out through the teeth buried in his arm.

Now he really doesn’t know what to say. He clears his throat, because he is not this stuttering, unsure person that seems to have taken over. He is an old, old vampire who is refined in every part of his life. Jungkook slides his fangs out from beneath his skin and holds his arm in his hand, looking unsure as to what to do with it.

“Can you lick the puncture wounds so they will close?” Taehyung asks. I am his sire, he reminds himself. Be worthy of it. He has to teach Jungkook, he has to guide him. And Jungkook seems willing to learn, because he listens. His tongue licks across his skin to close the wounds. He keeps doing so after to clean away all of the mess he made. It makes Taehyung feel like he could blush. Jungkook doesn’t even seem to realize he is doing it, just happy to have more blood even if it’s left over.

Taehyung takes his arm back, then he moves closer so he can sit across from him. “I’m Kim Taehyung,” he says. He bows as much as he can sitting down. “Do you recall your name?” He has no idea what Jungkook’s mental state is like, because he can’t recall his own from so long ago after he was turned. Jungkook underwent some serious physical trauma as well, so he is sure he does not feel very well.

“J-Jungkook,” Jungkook says. The word sounds like sandpaper through his throat that probably felt like it was burning just minutes ago. “W-Where am I? Why am I here?” He starts to look around again, looking frantic again. This time it is more lucid, and it makes it even worse. It isn’t just survival instincts now; it is conscious panic. He looks so scared, like the situation is dawning on him, that he is in a stranger’s house.

“Hey, hey, look at me, little fledgling,” Taehyung says gently. He rests his hand on Jungkook’s knee, and Jungkook’s eyes snap to his own. It… it doesn’t feel like they do it in fear, but as if he is looking at him for–for comfort, for guidance. “There we go. Be still. You need not worry. You are safe. You are so safe here.” Jungkook doesn’t look like he fully believes him, but he listens with rapt attention. “Do you recall what happened before waking up here?”

Jungkook breaks eye contact with him to look around as he thinks. He blinks repeatedly occasionally, as if it could help him see through the clouds in his mind. “I… I think I was… I was, um… m-making money.” His stuttering and reluctance seems to come from what he is saying, not a struggle to recall it.

Taehyung is confused. He tilts his head to the side. “Making money?”

Jungkook’s shoulders curl in. “Yes,” is all he says.

“I see…” Jungkook doesn’t seem to want to talk about it, so Taehyung does not push; it is not yet the important part of this anyway. “Do you recall seeing me? Before you woke up a few minutes ago?”

“No…”

“Well…” Taehyung softens his voice as much as he can. He is not sure how to tell someone he was dying. That he has died. “I found you in an alley. Someone was… attacking you. I found you just before it was too late. I asked if I could make it better, and I turned you.”

“T-Turned me?”

“How do you know of vampires?” Taehyung asks before going further.

“Um…” Jungkook curls in on himself again. He looks so young like this. Nothing like the creature that attacked him moments ago. He fidgets with the fabric of Taehyung’s sweatpants that he is wearing. There are so many sweet things about him so at odds with what he is now, with how he was just acting. “I, um… I–I heard from someone once… about–about p-places humans can go, a-and they’ll get paid i-if they let vampires, um, t-take their blood… A-And so I was, um, walking back from m-meeting up with someone, but I-I don’t think he, you know, u-um closed the holes in my neck, s-so I was still bleeding. And then someone, um, found me and pushed me into the alley, and then… yeah…”

Taehyung doesn’t know how he didn’t see the scars on Jungkook’s neck until now. A portrait of small white polka dots dotted around the skin where vampires who used him didn’t close the wounds. He supposes he was always too enchanted by the beauty mark beneath his lips, or his eyelashes, or the moonlight falling onto him that he didn’t even notice.

“I see,” Taehyung says, releasing the words as softly as he can manage. There is too much there for him to unpack, especially when he has a job to do. A fledgling under his care.

He starts to panic when he sees a teardrop glide down Jungkook’s cheek. It catches the sparkle of the dim light in the room before it falls off his chin like a raindrop. Immediately, more follow, as do short, shallow breaths that he can’t seem to catch, seemingly not used to the fact that he doesn’t need to breathe anymore.

“Oh, darling, no,” Taehyung says. He immediately moves closer, rests his hands on Jungkook’s forearms that are wrapped around his legs. “Sweet boy, what’s wrong? Hm? What’s wrong? What can I do for you?”

“I’m… I-I’m a vampire, right?” Jungkook manages to get out.

Taehyung’s beating heart aches. He doesn’t know if he can live with Jungkook’s hatred. If he can live with being responsible for the agony it is already causing the boy. “You are,” Taehyung says with pain.

It makes Jungkook begin to sob. He rocks back and forth, his whole body shaking with the force of it. Taehyung doesn’t know how to comfort him. He can’t wrap him in his arms like he so badly wishes to do, because he doesn’t think Jungkook would like that. “I–I’ve w-wanted to die for so long,” Jungkook says as he trembles. The high points of his face go red when he cries, Taehyung finds. The tip of his nose, the apples of his cheeks. He sniffles between sobs, eyes still so enchanting in his despair. Taehyung feels the same despair too as he listens to his words. “I-I’ve wanted to be dead f-for so long, a-and I can’t live f-forever. I don’t want to live forever, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t k-keep going in this life forever, I can’t b-be alone forever, I c-can’t–”

“You wouldn’t go back to your life before, if you didn’t want to,” Taehyung says. “Nor would you be alone.”

“H-How?” Jungkook cries, like being alone is all he has known.

Taehyung finally takes Jungkook into his arms. Jungkook falls into him. No, he does not fall; he seeks him out when he sees that he is allowed here, that he is wanted right here. Taehyung pets his hair as he holds him. “Well, you would be with me, my love,” he says gently.

There, in his chest, right where Jungkook is leaning against. A warmth and a completeness. A wholeness that he cannot find the words to describe after being so empty for so long. He realizes it because hen is a sire, and his fledgling is in his arms, being cared for by him. His fledgling must know that he is safe right now, and that feeling is shared with Taehyung.

“I am your sire,” Taehyung says softly to the scared boy in his arms who is no longer crying. “You will have me.”

“S-Sire?” Jungkook says softly. It is said in the sweetest voice Taehyung has ever heard.

“I am the one who turned you, so I am your sire, and you are my little fledgling. I am here to care for you and help guide you through this. You will not be left alone. You will have me.”

Jungkook doesn’t say anything, but Taehyung can feel the way he is growing calmer and calmer. He can feel it in his chest, and through the way Jungkook is slowly sinking further into his arms. It is such a strange sensation, to feel someone else’s emotions tied with his own, like someone else has taken up residence inside of him. Taehyung does not recall hearing about a sire-fledgling bond like this, but it is so rare for a sire to claim his fledgling that he is sure it is not often talked about. He does not recall Namjoon telling him about a bond like this either, but he knows his poor friend always has many things going on in his mind at once.

Taehyung continues to pet Jungkook’s hair, trying to soothe him. The boy has grown still in his arms, no longer trembling or sobbing. Taehyung might think he were asleep if he weren’t able to feel the hunger inside of him rapidly rising.

He can feel how Jungkook is going to pounce just seconds before he does. He can feel the rising intention, almost the inability to stop it, even though Taehyung can feel that he is the one who makes the decision – not his instincts making it for him.

Taehyung allows him to. Jungkook tackles him down onto the bed again, straddling him as his teeth sink into his neck all within a single second.

Taehyung sighs and closes his eyes. He wonders if Jungkook is able to feel the contentment radiating off of him from knowing he is feeding his fledgling. A brief thought appears in Taehyung’s head: that he is being fed from. He is a vampire, allowing another vampire to feed from him. And he is not just allowing it; he is welcoming it, relishing in it.

He lets Jungkook feed without control for a few seconds before he asserts himself. He would allow Jungkook to attack him in this way whenever he would like, but that is doing a disservice to his fledgling. He did not expect Jungkook to be calm enough to be reasoned with so soon, but he is, so he can be taught control.

He rests his hands on Jungkook’s hips. He lightly squeezes to get his attention. “Jungkook-ah,” he says. A soft growl rumbles from Jungkook as he continues to take greedy gulps of his blood. He wonders why Jungkook isn’t disgusted by the idea when he was a human just a day ago; Taehyung would normally think he’d reject the idea of drinking blood, would refuse to like some do when they regain their normal consciousness. He supposes it is his newfound thirst that takes over his body. Maybe once he is more rational about his hunger, it will dawn on him that he must drink blood.

Taehyung squeezes Jungkook’s hips harder and starts to gently push him away. “Jungkook-ah,” he says more firmly. “That’s enough.” This time, it is a whimper rather than a growl from Jungkook, a beg rather than a threat. “I know you’re hungry, darling, but I need you to stop, okay?” Jungkook shakes his head back and forth while his teeth remain planted in him. It hurts because Jungkook doesn’t know how to use his venom yet, so he is just tearing the puncture wounds wider. Taehyung’s tone becomes firmer, a suggestion of a threat in it. “Jungkook, that’s enough.”

Jungkook stops sucking on his neck, but his teeth remain buried there. Then, so, so slowly like it is taking every bit of effort he has, he pulls them out from beneath his skin and leans back.

Taehyung isn’t around young vampires often, but he often hears about them through Namjoon’s work. They come to his friend specifically because of how difficult it is for them to control themselves – as evidenced by the ones who come to the manor sometimes being years old.

Jungkook has only been awake for an hour, and he is already listening.

He doesn’t go far. Just enough so his fangs are no longer stuck in him, but his face is still tucked in his neck.

“Yeah, there you go, darling,” Taehyung says, his hand soothingly traveling up and down Jungkook’s back to comfort him through how difficult he knows it is. “I’m so proud of you. You are so strong and listened so well.” The breath is almost knocked out of Taehyung because of the feeling that hits his chest. It is not gentle like all of his other feelings, the way they slowly appear. It hits him as if he is being tackled: the overwhelming warmth and pride that takes over his entire body. He realizes he is feeling what Jungkook is, and that it must be coming from his praise. His hand begins to tremble as it continues its trail up and down Jungkook’s back. He is so used to feeling nothing at all; he is so used to a hollowness in his chest. He does not know what to do when the absence is there no longer, and is replaced with such warmth instead.

“You can bite me again, but only if you listen when I say stop, okay?” he says. Jungkook only nods, his nose dragging across the space behind his ear and making him shiver. Jungkook shivers right after, and Taehyung wonders if he is feeling his emotions too. He does not know much about this bond, so he does not know if it goes both ways. He thinks the pride and affection he is feeling is so strong Jungkook would be able to feel it even if the bond did not work the same for him. “Go on, sweetheart. I know you will stop when I say so. You are already doing so well.”

Slowly and smoothly, as easily as a knife cutting through butter, Jungkook’s fangs slice into his neck. He doesn’t drink yet though; he just keeps them buried there. Taehyung’s heart beats harder. “Jungkook-ah,” Taehyung sighs with such affection. “You are just so good and sweet. You can drink, my darling.” It feels almost as if Jungkook has given him his venom because of the euphoric feeling Jungkook unknowingly shares with him because of the praise.

Even though Taehyung can feel Jungkook’s desperate hunger, the boy drinks calmly and slowly. Little by little, that thirst ebbs further and further away until the tide will bring it in again. He is so calm and controlled that Taehyung doesn’t try to stop him. Nor does he need to, because Jungkook stops himself. Taehyung has no idea how he is so behaved; it is unlike anything he has ever seen. He even licks the wounds himself, closing up the open holes without needing to be told.

Shyly and slowly, Jungkook gets off of him. He curls himself up on the other end of the bed again.

Taehyung sits up. He rolls out his neck. He feels a little lightheaded, and it is a strange sensation. Maybe a little more than lightheaded. He realizes his blood supply must need to replenish itself because of how much Jungkook took from him. He hopes it doesn’t take too long for the feeling to go away, because Jungkook is going to undoubtedly need to feed again soon. He doesn’t think it is possible to truly drain him and kill him, but he doesn’t think reaching the edge of that will feel particularly good either.

He sits diagonal to Jungkook, facing him on the opposite side of the bed to give him space. “How are you feeling?” he asks him softly.

Jungkook’s knees are to his chest to make himself small. He is looking down at his feet, where his toes are wiggling against the duvet. “A little… disoriented, I guess,” he says, his voice barely there. “Kind of feels like this is a dream. But, um… it’s… nice to be out of the cold, I guess.”

Taehyung doesn’t mention that he won’t feel the cold anymore at all, even if he went back outside. He lets him feel the relief of its absence. He feels his own ache, though, that it is something he has thought about and experienced so much that it is still in his head during something as strange as all of this.

Jungkook rests his chin on his knees. Some of his long, wavy hair shields part of his face as he continues to look down at the blanket. He looks so young, so innocent, too sweet to be the same thing as Taehyung.

“You already are doing so well so far,” Taehyung says, “so I think it won’t be too difficult for you to adjust.” Again, a drop of warmth spreads in his chest when Jungkook hears the praise. Taehyung does not know what to focus on: the feeling of warmth after such cold hollowness, or the fact that it is there because Jungkook likes to hear these things from him. “Even when it is, I will do any and everything I can to make it easier for you.”

Jungkook seems to be taking in more of his surroundings now that his thirst has been subdued for now, because he asks, “Um, whose clothes are these?”

“Oh, those are mine,” Taehyung says. He bows as much as he is able to in this position. “I apologize for removing your clothes without being able to ask if that would be okay with you. You were covered in blood, and I didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave you that way. I promise that I only changed your outfit and cleaned what skin I could see with a cloth. Nothing more. But, um, there is something else you should know…” This segue is horrible, but it is appropriate too. He feels sick conjuring the words, feeling like he is going to throw up. He thinks that maybe the bond works both ways, because Jungkook makes a face as if he were feeling that nausea and distress too. His arms unwrap from himself to rest a hand on his stomach. Taehyung tries to quell the feeling, because it is not one he wants to force on Jungkook.

He holds back a wince when he speaks and tries to sound serious, because it is serious. “I have known you for a while,” he says.

Jungkook finally looks at him. His eyebrows furrow. “Huh?”

“Well… to say I’ve ‘known’ you is certainly taking a liberty. I’ve…” He takes a breath. There are so many new things he is having to do. He does not know how to tell someone he has essentially been stalking them, because that is not something that one should be telling someone, because it is not something one should be doing. “Do you recall… getting a new backpack? And–and a note… and waking up in a hotel room after you had been drinking for a while?” He watches it dawn on Jungkook as he connects all of the dots together. So many expressions pass over his face before settling on unease. It makes Taehyung ache, makes his nausea only rise. He is horrible. He is weird and creepy and he knows that. It all just got away from him, went further than he ever intended it to go. But it’s just–he cannot explain it. He cannot explain how everything in him halted when he saw him. How it did not feel like merely stumbling upon a human. He cannot explain it to himself, and he knows it would all most likely unsettle Jungkook even more anyway.

“I’m–I’m so sorry,” he says. “I am sure that was very uncomfortable for you to experience, and even more uncomfortable to hear after waking up here. I just–I saw you asleep on the bench in the park weeks ago, and I just felt the need to make sure you would be okay. I promise I would never do any harm to you, nor did I turn you out of anything but necessity so that you would live. I had no intentions with you but to keep you safe. You were not turned out of my greed, but only so that you would not die. I know it must be an unpleasant feeling to know you have been watched, and you have now woken up in the home of that person, but I just needed to be sure that you were safe. I know I will need to earn your trust, and I will find a way to do so every day if you choose to stay here.”

“Choose t-to… stay here?” Jungkook says quietly, head tilted to the side. He looks like a puppy seeing something he does not understand, not like a creature that could kill without any effort at all.

Taehyung nods, equally as confused. “I have other bedrooms, but you can also stay in my room so you do not have to be alone yet, if you would like.”

“B-But… stay here? I can–I can live here?”

“Well of course,” Taehyung says, tilting his head as well. “I would not turn you and send you back out. Even if you hadn’t been turned, I would not send you away if you wanted to stay.”

Jungkook looks incredulously around the room. His lips are parted, and Taehyung notices the way his fangs look beside his bunny teeth. He forces himself to look away, because he cannot confront that right now. He looks at Jungkook’s eyes instead. His doe eyes are so sweet, even with a red tint to them that will be there for quite some time. Even as they shine with a threat, he looks so innocent.

“Where are we?” Jungkook finally asks.

“We are in my manor,” Taehyung says. “It is not accessible through any transit or roads or sidewalks, so it is isolated in the forest.” He realizes how that sounds. Jungkook is probably hearing that he is isolated from the world with a man – a vampire man – who had been stalking him for weeks. He rushes to add, “But with your new abilities, you would be able to cross the forest in just a minute or so. For a human, it would be about a two hour walk outside of the city. The forest leading here is what is at the edge of the park where you slept. It is how I found you.”

“A-Abilities?” He is just cherry picking which things he wants out of everything Taehyung tells him and discarding the rest for now.

Taehyung tilts his head to the side. “How much time have you spent with vampires?” he asks.

Jungkook fidgets with the velvet duvet beneath them, a nervous tell that he seems to have. If Taehyung hadn’t turned him himself, he would never guess that Jungkook is a brand new fledgling. He is so normal. He has bouts of hunger, which is normal as well, but they’re nothing like what he has seen, even from vampires much older than him. He should be months away from where he is now. Months away from nervously fidgeting and speaking softly and even being able to speak and listen as it is. Taehyung does not know why he is so in control already, so behaved. He is an anomaly.

“N-Not a lot,” Jungkook says. “Just, um, enough for them to feed, and then that was it…”

Taehyung’s jaw clenches. He watches Jungkook blink repeatedly in confusion. His hands grip the duvet in a fist at the sudden feeling of near-rage he must be feeling, because it is coming from Taehyung. Taehyung tries to calm himself, counting up and down in his head to try to distract himself from the feeling. The thought of someone else feeding on Jungkook… It makes him want to find every other vampire that has ever been near him and end them one by one.

They didn’t do anything wrong – in fact, they even paid him, which is much more than what most do. Still, this is his fledgling. The thought of anybody’s fangs but his own inside of him makes him want to tear the city apart. Even the thought of him biting Jungkook himself feels wrong, wrong to ruin something so pure.

“Well, among other things,” Taehyung says, forcing himself to carry on, “you will find that you are much faster and stronger than you were before.”

The burst of excitement that is shared with him fills him with endearment, banishing the anger as if it were never there. Jungkook feels things so fully; it is such a strange, wonderful feeling for Taehyung. He feels even more fondness when Jungkook mutters, “I was fast and strong before too.” It brings an unexpected boisterous laugh out of Taehyung. With it comes a feeling of more excitement cloaked in affection that has to come from Jungkook. Maybe from making his sire laugh. Taehyung knows he has to explain the bond to Jungkook. It is unfair for him to not know, but he doesn’t want Jungkook to try to hide his feelings and impulses on top of everything else he has to try to do now.

“I’m sure you were,” Taehyung says, “so maybe now you will be faster and stronger than me, little fledgling.”

Jungkook has to feel the warmth that glows in him when Jungkook smiles. It is a small, shy thing, but it’s there, and it melts Taehyung’s beating heart.

“How old are you?” Jungkook asks.

“Which age would you like?” Taehyung asks.

It makes Taehyung laugh when Jungkook says, “Huh?”

“You will have two ages now. The age that you were turned, and the age that you have lived on after.”

Jungkook blinks at him. “Oh…” he says. “Um, both?”

“I was turned when I was forty-two,” Taehyung says. “And I was turned nearly two hundred years ago.”

If any color were in Jungkook’s face, it would have drained from it. “Two… two hundred?” he says. Taehyung nods. “That’s a long time…”

Taehyung chuckles, a little wryly. It really, really is. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Twenty-six?” Taehyung says. “God, you’re ancient.”

That startles a laugh out of Jungkook this time. It makes Taehyung giggle, which he does not think is something he does. The warmth he feels in his chest is a mix of the two of theirs.

He is so overwhelmed by so many things – mostly overwhelming affection and endearment for this boy – that he is unable to think about anything else fully. The emptiness that has been filled in his chest, the wholeness he feels after so long. Every time he begins to become aware of it again, his attention is taken away by seeing Jungkook’s sweet smile, or answering another question, or feeling the warmth itself instead of thinking about how it is there.

He doesn’t want to bring the mood down, but he wants to get all of the heavier things out of the way before they can settle into the easier stuff. Not that any of this is easy, but some parts are harder than others. So he asks, “Is there anything you need me to do? I would not be comfortable with you being outside for quite some time.” He coos when he sees the pout Jungkook is trying to hide. He leans in and flicks under his chin. “No need for pouting, little fledgling. You will find that all we have is time. Until you are ready for that though, is there anything you need me to do for you?”

“Like what?” Jungkook asks. The fact that he genuinely doesn’t know makes Taehyung ache, that it is not something that even came to his mind amidst all of this.

“Things of yours you would like me to retrieve for you, or people I should speak to. Plans I should lay out for why you might have disappeared for a while.”

Taehyung could feel his sadness as he spoke. It is not exactly sadness, though, but perhaps a reminder of when the sadness was once felt. It did not feel close enough for it to be sadness anymore. Maybe resignation, a reminder of an acceptance he shouldn’t have had to make.

“Um, no, there’s, um, nothing you need to do…”

There is so much that Taehyung would like to know. Big things like this – what led him to Taehyung finding him asleep on a park bench – and the little insignificant things, like his favorite season and his favorite color so he can learn who he is and what little things make him up and see how they change over time. That is if Jungkook allows him to stay a part of his life for long enough to see the way he changes. He would like to be here to see it. The way he erodes and evolves and what parts stay the same. He wants to be here with him for long enough. For longer than that.

“Okay,” he says softly. He wants to reach out, offer him some kind of comfort, but he doesn’t. “If you do think of anything, please let me know.” Jungkook nods as he fidgets with his fingers to avoid his eye.

“I feel kind of sleepy…” Jungkook says. “Is that normal? Do vampires sleep? I thought you–um–w-we didn’t…”

“We do not get sleepy, exactly, but we have the ability to sleep, although it is not necessary. You will still have some of your human qualities for a while more, including the need for sleep. You have gone through a lot, so it is normal that you would need some rest too. Are you hungry?”

Jungkook looks nervous to say, as if it is an inconvenience. “A little bit, I think…” The fact that he is even able to answer if he is hungry and not take and take and take is inconceivable to Taehyung. He does not know how he can be so normal. He is very happy about it, even though he would be just as happy if Jungkook behaved like other vampires his age do. He is glad it is easy for Jungkook though, and it is easier for himself as well.

“Why don’t we get you tucked in and comfortable,” Taehyung says, “and I will give you more to drink.”

Taehyung stands and pulls back the duvet, and Jungkook very shyly tucks himself beneath it. He still refuses to look at him, instead looks down at the bed. This shyness is so strange. Not because he should not be shy, because it is warranted, but because he should not be anything but rabid.

Taehyung lies the duvet across him as Jungkook wiggles around to get comfortable. Once he is settled, Taehyung sits at his side, the same way he did when he cleaned the blood from him before he awoke. He holds out his arm to offer his untouched wrist, because the other is a bit sore from the constant biting without anything to numb the thin skin. Jungkook continues to refuse to meet his eye as his hand loosely holds onto his wrist, still lying down with his head against the pillow. He does finally glance up at him for a moment, as if to make sure this is okay. He looks away again, then he bites.

Taehyung marvels again at his self control. Not only is there blood in front of him, but it is another vampire’s blood. His sire’s blood, there for the taking. And with those all being true, he is able to sleepily bite him, and sleepily drink from him. Not desperate or parched or famished, but slow and calm with his eyes closed, as if it is going to soon make him doze off.

Without meaning to, Taehyung’s other hand raises. It settles on top of Jungkook’s head, and he pets his hair. Jungkook does not freeze or flinch or open his eyes like before. Taehyung instead feels the contentment radiating off of him. It is more than he could have wished for for his new fledgling. He anticipated difficulty and anger and discomfort. Not this sleepy contentment as he lazily drinks from his arm.

“My little fledgling,” Taehyung says softly as he pets his hair. “You will be okay, my darling. You will be more than okay with me. I promise.” It is as if the words were all it took for Jungkook to calm himself the rest of the way, and he falls asleep. His grip on his arm loosens, his head lolls slightly to the side, and Taehyung’s wrist falls from his mouth.

Taehyung licks the puncture wounds closed himself as he keeps brushing through Jungkook’s hair. Jungkook smacks his lips together in his sleep like he is tasting Taehyung’s blood even then, and he drifts off all the way. Taehyung sees a peek of the tips of his fangs poking against his bottom lip, and he remembers that he will need to teach Jungkook how to retract his fangs and drop them again when needed (even though it is so cute right now that it could bring Taehyung to his knees).

There is so much that he will need to teach Jungkook, and he feels out of his depth. He was not expecting such a smooth awakening. He thought he would have to work on just being able to make him rational for several days, not all of the things that should follow months from now.

He stands slowly so he does not wake him. He watches him over his shoulder until he opens his bedroom door and closes it softly behind him.

He feels an invisible tug. It feels like there is something unseen tying the two of them together, and it is trying to pull him back to Jungkook even when he is just on the other side of the door. It feels like it does not stretch this far, these mere few meters. Everything in him wants to return back to his side to ease his mind and breathe more easily when the pull is not so tight. He fights it, because this is important too.

“Namjoon,” he says quietly, knowing his friend will hear the call.

And he does, because he appears only a moment later. “Hey, Tae. Need something?”

“Yes. Jungkook is awake – well, he is asleep at the moment, but he woke up earlier – and–”

“Wait, he woke up already?” Namjoon asks, eyebrows deeply furrowed. Taehyung nods. “Really?” Taehyung nods again. “And now he’s asleep?” Taehyung nods a third time. Namjoon looks away as he strokes his chin – such a pinnacle pensive gesture for him. “How did it go?”

“Much more smoothly than expected.”

“Yeah, I’d say so, if he’s just resting right now and not tearing up the manor.”

Taehyung chuckles, but he feels a sense of pride. His well-behaved, sweet little fledgling.

“I expected much worse than this. I was not prepared for any of this as it is, but I certainly do not feel prepared to be faced with a fledgling who feels like he is weeks farther along on the first night. There is so much I have to teach him so soon – just how to control his fangs, for one, which I didn’t even think of. There is so much I did not think of or prepare for. And I–I am just out of my depth, and I have to be good at this. I have to be a good sire to him. I have to teach him and guide him and be good to him and make this easy for him. I am not prepared and did not expect any of this but that does not matter because we are here, whether I feel ready for not. And I am sorry to ask this of you, but is there a way you could, I don’t know, give me a list of things you can think of that he will have to know? And–and–”

The bedroom door creaks open. Taehyung whips his head around. A sparkly doe eye, red around the edges, is peeking out before the rest of his face reveals itself too. “T-Taehyung?” Jungkook asks. He sounds unsure, and he looks scared as he glances over to Namjoon.

Taehyung realizes he is hearing his name from him for the first time, and it sounds so lovely. It sounds as if Taehyung is truly hearing his name for the first time. He does not dwell on it, because, “Is something wrong?”

“I–I woke up, and you weren’t there, and I just–I feel r-really nervous right now. I felt really nervous in my sleep, and it woke me up, and I just–you’re–I–”

“Hey, hey, my love, it’s okay,” Taehyung says, feeling panic at Jungkook’s rising panic. Taehyung opens the door further, only enough to take his hand so that he can still feel partially hidden away from the stranger on the other side. Immediately, Taehyung feels calmed, because Jungkook does as well. He could swear that where their hands connect, their skin feels warm together. He knows that cannot be. He is unsure how Jungkook is even able to tolerate his touch for so long, how his hand has not turned to ice already. It is just the warmth Taehyung feels inside, he tells himself, so strong it feels like it is spreading outward.

“See?” he says. “I’m right here.”

“It is usually hard for fledglings to be apart from their sires,” Namjoon says. Taehyung jumps, because he’d already forgotten Namjoon is there. He looks over his shoulder back at him. “It is why it is so difficult that sires are so rare. But it is difficult, too, when the sire stays and strays from their side in the beginning.”

It makes sense. Taehyung feels like a horrible sire. There is so much–he is just out of his depth. Almost two hundred years of life and he isn’t sure how to care for another person.

“It will be difficult for both of you to be apart from one another for a while, since you are sire and fledgling,” Namjoon continues. His face becomes pensive again. “Although, I have never heard of the distance being so close,” he says quietly, as if to only himself.

“Does it have anything to do with the bond?” Taehyung asks.

Namjoon looks further perplexed. Before he can say anything, Jungkook asks, “Bond?” quietly.

Taehyung turns back to him. He hums with a nod. “Can you feel it?” he asks softly. He raises a hand and rests it against Jungkook’s heart. “Right here. It starts here and it spreads.”

“W-What starts here?”

Taehyung doesn’t even have to try to make him feel it. He just has to look at his face – his sparkling doe eyes, the beauty mark beneath his lips, the tip of his fangs that are still poking into the softness above it because he doesn’t know how to soften their edges when he is not using them yet. Just a glance at him makes his affection become too much to contain that it spreads outward to Jungkook too. And he knows Jungkook can feel it, because his innocent eyes get even rounder. He sees Jungkook touch his thumb to each of his fingertips, where he must be feeling it too, because Taehyung always wants to reach out and touch this boy he has admired for so long.

“Whatever you are feeling, some of it is shared with me. And everything that is mine is yours too.”

“O-Oh…” Jungkook says.

Namjoon makes a vague sound to himself. It makes the two of them jump. They both have heightened senses – impeccable hearing, the awareness of their surroundings that both a predator and prey combined could not have – and still, the entire time Jungkook has been at the manor, where he knows he is finally safe, everything else has fallen away. It is like he can let his guard down, because he is finally okay. He is okay here; he does not have to be so scared.

Namjoon still has that vague expression on his face, looking lost in thought. “I will make a list for you,” he says. He is more of that calm, grounding presence again when he continues, “I really don’t think you will need it though. Things will come when they do, and you will be good at it.”

Taehyung isn’t so sure about that, but he doesn’t want to voice his doubts with Jungkook here to make him doubt that he can rely and depend on him. So he says, “Jungkook-ah, darling, this is my friend Namjoon. He lives at the manor with us. If ever you need anything, he would be happy to help you. Namjoon, this is Jungkook, my little fledgling.”

“Not little…” Jungkook mutters in a way that cracks Taehyung’s heart open. He is a little shy now that Jungkook knows what the different feelings inside of him are. He was nervous Jungkook would be shy about it, but he did not realize he would be.

“Hello, Jungkook,” Namjoon says with a polite bow. “Taehyung-ah is right. Just say my name, and I will be here to help you with anything you need. You already seem to be doing so well so far – more than I’d expect from any vampire that just woke up. Even one weeks from now.”

“Thank you…” Jungkook says quietly. He sounds like he means it, but Taehyung doesn’t feel the warmth and pride he did when he told Jungkook the same.

“He is right,” Taehyung says. “My little fledgling is doing so well.” He could fall to his knees because he feels it now – that excitement and fulfillment – because it is from his sire. “Now let’s get you tucked back in so you can get some much-needed rest. I am sorry for causing you to wake, my love.”

He sees Namjoon's eyes briefly widen out of the corner of his eye. He finally realizes what he said. What he has been calling Jungkook without really noticing or doing so intentionally.

My love.

Of course.

Of course.

Taehyung glances over at Namjoon, and he sees that Namjoon is looking at his neck with an unreadable expression. Taehyung knows that there must be specks of dried blood there. He knows Namjoon is connecting the dots before Taehyung has even found all of them yet. He knows he is connecting dots that should not even exist yet. And neither should the puncture holes in his neck, because a vampire should not allow another vampire to bite them, especially when it is a sire and his fledgling.

“Thank you, Namjoon,” Taehyung says before he can see him figure things out further. “Your assistance and reassurance is very much appreciated.”

Namjoon just nods at him. “Nice to meet you, Jungkook,” he says over Taehyung’s shoulder as Taehyung guides his fledgling back into the bedroom.

“You too…” Jungkook says shyly and sleepily.

Taehyung shuts and locks the door behind them, and Jungkook gets back in bed. Taehyung waits for him to get comfortable, then he sits at his side again. Just like before, he pets Jungkook’s hair. Soft and wavy, a little fluffy. Taehyung does not know if he is allowed these mindless touches that take place before he has thought about doing them. He does not know if he is deserving of this familiarity, unearned but undeniable. But he takes it, and Jungkook allows him to. He does not know how so much of this has already settled. Jungkook has already leaned into it so easily, at least for now. They will have more to discuss, and he is sure he will feel differently and more like himself after getting some rest. In this moment though, getting to touch him so openly, getting to do so when Jungkook knows who he is… It is wonderful.

“I am sorry for causing you to wake, darling boy,” he says quietly. He watches Jungkook try to resist drifting right off. “I will not leave your side.” Not now, and not ever, unless Jungkook sends him away himself. “You can rest. I will be here.” Jungkook nods, his eyes already closed. As he keeps nodding though, Taehyung isn’t sure if he is acknowledging what he is saying, or nuzzling himself further into the petting he is receiving. The adoration that simmers calmly inside of Taehyung must be what finally allows him to surrender and rest.

“My darling boy,” he whispers again. My love, he whispers even softer in his head.

It cannot be that. It cannot already be that.

But it is awfully close.

Taehyung halts his petting. He does not want the movement to cause him to wake again. He reaches over to the nightstand to grab his book to occupy himself with as his fledgling sleeps.

When his hand lifts, Jungkook shifts. He tries to burrow further into the bed. He wiggles around in his sleep to try to get more comfortable. Once Taehyung has opened to the page in his novel he left off at, he rests a hand on Jungkook again. He doesn’t want the iciness of his skin to transfer to his sleeping fledgling, so he glides it over his hair again instead. And as he does so, Jungkook settles into his rest and does not move again. Taehyung tries to suppress the feeling that overcomes him, because he thinks Jungkook would wake if he felt its full effect. So he trains his eyes on the words on the paper in front of him and continues to soothingly pet his fledgling as he sleeps by his side.

Chapter Text

Taehyung is unable to even put his book down – let alone tuck his bookmark in to keep his place – before he finds himself flat on his back on the mattress again. Splatters of blood have surely stained the pages before he throws the book aside while his fledgling sinks his teeth into his neck as if he is his to consume.

Taehyung sighs amusedly and tilts his head to the side. He chuckles as Jungkook drinks from him as if he has suffered years without sustenance and he is crazed by a feast in front of him. Taehyung isn’t sure if the way he feels pleased is entirely his own.

One of Taehyung’s hands settles on Jungkook’s hipbone while the other rests on his side, slowly sliding up and down it. “Jungkook-ah, little fledgling, you can’t keep attacking me like this,” he intends to scold, but it comes out much, much, much too fondly to be effective at all.

He allows Jungkook to get his fill. He knows there must be a sting in his neck because he keeps being pierced there, but he cannot feel any sensation other than the satisfaction of knowing he is feeding his fledgling.

A minute later, Jungkook finally leans back, chest rising and falling quickly like he had been running for miles. There are lines of blood trickling down from the corners of his lips just like the ones Taehyung can feel on his neck too. Taehyung reaches out and wipes his mouth clean for him, swiping his thumb through the blood there. “Messy little fledgling,” he teases much too fondly. He wipes it onto his duvet, not very keen on the thought of tasting his own blood. “Can you close the wounds on my neck, darling?”

“Oh, s-sorry…” Jungkook says shyly. He is back to this shy, stuttering boy and not the fledgling who keeps attacking him. Jungkook leans down and licks his neck for him, healing the broken skin. Taehyung focuses on the feeling of Jungkook being full and sated for now to avoid feeling Jungkook’s tongue on his neck.

Jungkook moves from on top of him, his cheeks and the tips of his ears burning as he avoids eye contact. Taehyung chuckles and sits up, then he flicks under the boy’s chin to try to put him at ease. “How are you feeling?” he asks. “Did you sleep well?” Jungkook nods, fidgeting with the duvet again. “Have you noticed that you cannot see my fangs?” Jungkook darts his eyes up. Taehyung parts his lips to show rounded canine teeth, looking the same as they did when he was human. Then slowly they elongate just slightly, tapering off into sharp points at the end to reveal his true nature.

“They can go away?” Jungkook asks, looking hypnotized. Taehyung nods and rounds them out again.

“I will teach you.” He brings his legs up to the bed and settles in front of Jungkook. Their legs are crossed, close enough for their knees to touch.

Except he isn’t really sure how to do so.

It is just something he learned to do himself. He doesn’t even really recall learning and being conscious of it; it just happened, and he knew how to control it.

“Is your hunger sated for now?” Taehyung asks, even though he can feel that it is. Jungkook nods. “Focus on that then. Focus on your full stomach. The soothed feeling of your throat, the absence of any hungered burn there. Envision the blood you consumed–” my blood, Taehyung cannot stop himself from thinking, my blood, your sire’s blood, the blood I have given you, because I am yours, just as I think of you as mine, “rushing through your body. Picture it in your veins as you feel the absence of any thirst, the ability to be around me without feeling any hold of hunger over you.”

As he spoke, he slowly saw the tips of Jungkook’s fangs start to disappear. He watches them slide up until his mouth is fully closed, nothing poking into the softness of his bottom lip. Taehyung feels so much pride rush through him, and Jungkook perks up at the feeling.

“You did it,” Taehyung says as a smile spreads across his lips.

Jungkook feels his teeth with his thumbs – all of them – and finds they are all rounded and blunt, looking more like a bunny now than a vampire, prey rather than predator. “I did!” he says excitedly. Taehyung feels so much fondness he thinks he could burst.

“You are much better at this than anyone I have ever known,” Taehyung says. “Certainly better than I ever was. My talented little fledgling, aren’t you, hm?” Jungkook’s face flushes red with the blood that is in his system.

“How do I make them come out again?” Jungkook asks with panic. “What if I can’t do it?”

“It will happen naturally when you grow hungry again,” Taehyung says. “You won’t have to think about it. Hmm, but we should test your self-control. You already are so controlled, so I would like to see its parameters.”

Jungkook’s head tilts to the side when Taehyung leans over. He finally notices the box of blood bags that’s been on the floor beside the bed. It’s curious that he had not noticed it before, when a large supply of human’s blood has been in the room with them. It should have been testing his temptation for the entire night and day he has been here now.

“What’s that?” Jungkook asks dubiously, even though it’s obvious.

“Blood bags,” Taehyung says. “We always have them here in case no humans come around.”

“Humans?”

Taehyung nods. “You know, the thing you were until around twenty-four hours ago.”

Jungkook rolls his eyes at him. It is absolutely adorable. “Why would there be humans here? Especially since you said we’re isolated.”

Taehyung does not want to get into all of that yet – the way humans show up, the way they’re fed on, the venom of it all. So he says, “Many humans who know of our kind appear at our manor as an offering. Which is part of why I was surprised that you were paid for your contribution to the vampires you have met.” He tries to keep his voice neutral, but he is certain Jungkook is able to feel the shift inside of him. “It won’t be a good idea to have you around a human for quite some time though, so we should get you adjusted to blood bags.”

“Adjusted?” Jungkook asks doubtfully.

Taehyung hums and nods as he picks through the box. “Many vampires are able to taste the difference between blood types and have their own favorite, so I will give you the ones that others enjoy.” He looks for the bag that is labeled O-negative but will not be surprised if his friends have already consumed them all.

“But what about… um, well, I–I’ve been feeding from you.”

Taehyung is not sure how to breach that topic. It is silent as he sorts through the box. Finally, he says, “It is not… customary, I suppose, for a vampire to drink from another. It is–yeah, it does not happen. Vampires do not allow it, not after the initial bite, when I gave you my blood to turn you.”

Jungkook is silent after that, Taehyung too as he awkwardly picks through the box to find the one he’s searching for. He focuses on how strange it is that Jungkook has adjusted to everything so well. How he has not shown disgust from having to drink blood, or even having any discomfort from knowing he is now a vampire. He supposes knowing that vampires exist and having fed them makes all of this less jarring.

“What’s your favorite?” Jungkook eventually asks. There is a change in his tone, but Taehyung is not sure what exactly it is.

Taehyung shrugs and sets the box aside. “I do not really notice it anymore. I have been alive long enough that I feed because I have to, not because I enjoy it.” He hands the bag to Jungkook. Jungkook reluctantly takes it. Taehyung wonders if it is catching up to him now – the disgust at the realization that he is drinking blood. It usually sets in much further down the line when vampires are able to think of anything other than wanting more, but he’s sure the medium of it – seeing it in a bag found in hospitals and drinking out of it – is not pleasant.

Jungkook rips the corner of the bag off before Taehyung can offer to get a cup for him. Jungkook leans in and sniffs it. His nose twitches like a bunny. He doesn’t show a reaction, which is strange. It should deepen the red of his eyes. Should make him drain it in an instant. Instead, he hesitantly pours some of it into his mouth.

Almost comically, he spits it out like a character in a film. It sprays over the duvet – where it just blends in – and Taehyung watches wide-eyed, his mouth dropped open. Jungkook does not even turn sheepish or embarrassed, because he has the back of his hand over his mouth and looks like he might be sick. Taehyung realizes that part of it is dramatic, because Jungkook whines very impressively and shoves the bag back to him. “Get that away from me please,” he says with another dramatic gag.

Taehyung wordlessly takes the bag. Jungkook is a fledgling; everything should taste good to him right now. Taehyung smells the blood, and it smells like it always does. It smells good, because it always does.

“I will hazard a guess that you do not like that blood type,” Taehyung says. He sets it aside. Jungkook shakes his head as he smacks his lips together, trying to rid his mouth of the taste. His nose scrunches too. He is being very theatrical about this. “Okay, let’s try this one.” He hands Jungkook a bag of AB-positive. It is usually reserved for those with more niche tastes, but perhaps being on the opposite end of the spectrum might appeal to Jungkook more.

With a more blood-splattered duvet than before to show for it, it does not.

Nor does A-negative, A-positive, AB-negative, and every other type Yoongi provided him with. They have every single type, and they even mix a few together to create a sort of cocktail. Those ones elicit an even worse reaction than they do on their own.

“What is it that you do not like about them?” Taehyung asks.

Taehyung thinks that Jungkook is the most dramatic little being he has ever come across. His range of emotions is truly impressive, and the level of them as well, because they are not truly in accordance with the situation at the measure they are at. Jungkook violently shakes his head as he simply recalls the taste. “They taste–they are not good. It’s like–like spoiled milk, but the blood version, and like I put a handful of rusted pennies in my mouth.”

“I see,” Taehyung says pensively. He takes one of the many open bags and brings it to his lips.

Right as the blood meets his mouth, his body is full of a rage he has never before experienced – and the rage he has experienced, especially in his youth when he was not in control of his nature, could have burned down the world.

It is not his own though.

Taehyung looks at Jungkook, and he looks the exact same. Like the sweet fledgling he is, hair a slight mess after just waking up, doe eyes watching him, looking like a polite little creature. There is a look of leftover disgust on his face from the taste-testing, but he looks otherwise normal. The feeling inside Taehyung is unmistakable though.

He, too, makes a face of distaste mixed with confusion when he tastes the blood as well. It does not solicit the same reaction that Jungkook had, but most likely because he is not as dramatic as his silly fledgling. It doesn’t taste horrible, but it is certainly not enjoyable.

“Hm,” Taehyung says, very confused. He stopped noticing or enjoying the taste of blood so long ago, so to even find that it tastes bad is even more unusual for him – not to mention that a recently-turned fledgling very passionately agrees. “Perhaps it is because they have been sitting out and not refrigerated.” The refrigerator is required for humans who are in need of blood transplants though, not for them. Perhaps it is due to Jungkook’s age, and how recently he was a human. Again, though, it should be the opposite. “I will go to the kitchen and fetch some fresh ones for you,” he says. The bags are not expired because the date printed on them shows they are still good for another month. Still, perhaps sitting out has affected the taste.

The rage that was so strong in him simmers. Jungkook remains looking the same, like it never appeared and never went away. He watches Taehyung stand with those round doe eyes. The anger ebbs away further and gives way to slight bashfulness when Taehyung flicks under his chin. “I will be right back, my little fledgling,” he says. He chuckles to himself when he hears “not little…” mumbled before he goes.

With the box of opened blood bags in his arms, he makes his way to the kitchen.

Jungkook slept through the morning and much of the afternoon. Evening is near, and the grey sky has already darkened to show for it. He walks past the pointed-arch windows occasionally placed down the long hall, and it shows the dreary weather outside. Some raindrops cling to the windows, but Taehyung had not even heard them falling. It makes the flickering flames of the partially candle-lit hall look even moodier, especially when the shadows dance on the old art surrounding them. Still, it does not look unsettling or unnerving, like the home of a cruel vampire. It is rather cozy instead.

The last time he walked these halls, he was so different. He was just Taehyung, who was unhappy to be here. Now he is Jungkook’s sire, and it is like he is seeing everything in a new light. He is seeing the home that will shelter Jungkook. He is seeing the grounds that he will be able to run through, when he can be trusted to go outside. He sees a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Now when he sees the set of his few wrinkles and his sprinkling of grey hair, he sees someone who is old enough to take care of a fledgling, because he has lived long enough to be able to care for another. Now there is a warmth in his chest that has curled itself up so comfortably, as if it has already settled in, as if it has been there all along and there was never such despair. There is now a bond that tugs at him, trying to pull him back to his fledgling as he walks. He does not submit to it yet, because he wants his fledgling to be fed.

Yoongi is in the kitchen when he arrives, as he often is. He is always either making drinks for the others who live in the manor, or trying to think of ways he can make other forms of food they can enjoy if they are infused with blood. Nothing so far has been a success, but he has not stopped trying. He appears to be cleaning up after another experiment, and the scent of it in the garbage shows that it was not a success judged by whomever tasted it.

There are a few white spots on his dark clothes, which must be a dusting of flour. His long hair is pulled back and held more securely out of his face my a headband, and his sharp eyes sharpen further when he sees the blood box in Taehyung’s arms – especially when it should be empty, since it should have been what Jungkook has been feeding on this whole time.

“I believe this blood has gone bad,” Taehyung says. He sets it on the counter. “Perhaps because it has been sitting out unrefrigerated.”

“Huh,” Yoongi says. He looks confused as well, because he, too, knows that that should not make a difference for them – both at their age, and for a fledgling even more. He reaches in for one of the open bags and takes a sip. He shows no reaction except for the brief tint of red that passes over his irises before the night sky returns to his eyes, like all of the other times they all feed. “It tastes good to me.”

“Huh,” Taehyung says this time. “It did not taste good to me. Not as horrible as it did to Jungkook-ah, but…”

An unreadable expression passes over Yoongi’s face. Before either of them can question further, Namjoon enters into the kitchen, having heard it all, because he asks, “Jungkook has been feeding from you, right?” Taehyung nods, and the expression on Yoongi’s face deepens. He glances to the side in his habit that he does, because he is usually seeking out Jimin or Hoseok to try to communicate to them silently. “That’s most likely why other blood tastes–”

Suddenly, there is a Jungkook in the kitchen. He appeared so suddenly that Taehyung wasn’t even able to hear him leaving the bedroom across the manor. The upset expression on his face cleared as soon as he arrived to make way for a big smile. “I was so fast!” he says excitedly. Taehyung realizes that was the first time he actually tested out his speed.

A loud laugh fills the kitchen. It is followed by a feeling of warmth inside of him and a glance between Namjoon and Yoongi. Taehyung is sure they haven’t heard him laugh like that in a long, long time.

Taehyung crosses the kitchen to Jungkook in the entranceway and flicks under his chin. “You were,” he says. “I did not even have time to hear you coming. And what are you doing in here, my little fledgling?”

He becomes shy now. “Felt weird without you again…”

Taehyung hums and takes Jungkook’s hand. He feels Jungkook’s shyness from the action before it gives way to contentment, pleased about being close to his sire again. Taehyung wonders if Jungkook finds comfort in his touch only because of their bond, or because he simply wants to be close. He recalls caring for Jungkook when he was drunk, how fully he leaned into him and how often he nuzzled to try to burrow closer, and he suspects it might be a mix of both.

“I am sorry, my love,” Taehyung says. “I will take you with me wherever I go from now on.” He turns to the others to introduce his fledgling. He finds the expressions he has been seeing on everyone’s faces since Jungkook arrived. Incredulity. He understands. He feels that way too sometimes, when he is not drowning in fondness.

“Jungkook-ah, darling, this is Yoongi,” he says. “And you have met Namjoon of course. Yoongi lives here with us as well.”

“Hi…” Jungkook says shyly. Taehyung finds it absolutely adorable. He has seen Jungkook when he has been at ease now – his dramatics when taste-testing blood, his excitement when he realized how fast he is, his sassiness that pops up occasionally, bits and pieces of his personality that he has allowed to come out – so it makes his shyness around others even more adorable.

“Since you and Jungkook are both here,” he says to Yoongi, “may I ask you to make us both a drink like you did for me the other day?” Maybe it will taste better for Jungkook if there are still some human qualities to it that he is more used to than he is blood. Maybe some of the spices that he recognizes from his old diet will help if they are in union with his new one.

“Yeah, of course,” Yoongi says. He goes to the fridge to grab fresh blood bags, and he does the same process he did for Taehyung recently. He sets a pot on the stove. He pours the blood inside and lights the fire beneath it. He opens their very expansive spice cabinet and picks out the ones he is feeling drawn to this time, probably knowing what might be good for Jungkook for this purpose. He sprinkles different things into the pot, the kitchen filled with a wonderful aroma as he stirs the blood around to let the spices spread their flavor.

Taehyung laughs when he senses something else.

“You can come in, Jimin,” he says. He could hear, smell, and feel Jimin lingering outside of the kitchen, buzzing to come inside and meet this new person that has joined them in the manor and had such a strange effect on his best friend. Taehyung wouldn’t be surprised if Jimin was loitering outside of his bedroom as well.

He would be nervous that maybe this is too much too soon for Jungkook, but it is Jimin. Jimin can put anyone at ease, and Taehyung suspects that the two of them will become very fast friends. He hopes it will put Jungkook more at ease as well to not feel like a stranger in this new, strange life – in a manor full of strangers, in a new life he probably isn’t sure how to navigate.

Jimin casually strolls into the kitchen as if he just happened to be entering it at this very moment, his hair brightly pastel pink again. He skitters to a stop. “Oh, who’s this?” he asks. It makes Taehyung loudly laugh as he shakes his head.

He’s really, really missed Jimin.

Taehyung squeezes Jungkook’s hand so he remembers that he’s here, that his sire has him. “Jungkookie, my sweetheart, this is Jimin, my best friend. Jimin-ah, this is my little fledgling Jungkook.”

“You keep calling me little,” Jungkook fully whines before Jimin can respond. It could make Taehyung sob, because he thinks it means that Jungkook might be fully comfortable in his watch. That Jungkook already feels so comfortable with him that he knows he can be whiny and silly and still be cared for. He hopes that it means he feels settled, like he knows he can stay no matter how he is showing himself.

“Well, you are my little fledgling,” Taehyung says as he flicks under his chin again. “But I will stop if you wish. Just my fledgling.”

“N-No, it’s okay…” Jungkook says quietly, refusing to make eye contact. Taehyung can feel the collective coo everyone is holding back.

“Hi, Jungkook!” Jimin says to free him from his shyness. “It’s nice to meet you. You didn’t know Taehyungie before you came along, but if you could see and understand how fond and protective he is over you, you’d–”

“Okay, okay, that’s enough,” Taehyung says. He knows there is a lot of teasing of this nature ahead of them; they do not need to start just yet. He realizes he can feel his cheeks blush. He has not felt that in nearly two centuries. His body is producing blood for his fledgling, and now he can blush because of it. He feels so human. He is surprised by how nice it feels.

He wonders if, when Jungkook stops feeding from him, his heart will stop beating again.

“Here you both go,” Yoongi says, giving both of them a reprieve from their shyness as he holds out two mugs to each of them. Their hands part to wrap around the cups. The warmth of it feels nice against Taehyung’s hands for now.

He smells it, blood and spices. Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mulling spice, perhaps even a hint of pumpkin pie spice too. It is a perfect warm drink for a dreary autumn day. He hums appreciatively. “It’s been a while since I’ve fed. I didn’t realize how hungry I am.”

He glances at Jungkook to see if he’s tried it yet, and Jungkook is watching him with blazing red eyes and a clenched jaw. He is probably getting overwhelmed by the blood in front of him and politely waiting to drink it. His eyes are boring into Taehyung with an intensity that almost scares him.

He raises his mug at the same time as his sire, and they each take a sip together.

Taehyung has barely registered tasting it himself, because he watches Jungkook’s expression of intense, violent disgust again. The fledgling sputters and coughs after he has swallowed this time, instead of spitting it out dramatically like he did in private. Taehyung follows it with a much more subdued face of distaste. He shakes his head, scrunching his nose. “Our blood supply must have gone bad, because this does not taste good. Not through any fault of yours, Yoongi, because the spices are nice. The blood has just spoiled.”

“Here, lemme try it,” Jimin says. He takes the mug from him. He takes a sip of the drink, and his face lights up enough to banish the gloominess of the weather. “Yoongi, you have to do this for me whenever it’s time to feed again. This is so good!” He tuts and shakes his head. “You should have been doing this the whole time. Do you even love me?” He takes another big gulp as Yoongi repeatedly insists that he does love him and didn’t know he would want him to do that.

“Namjoon, try this,” Taehyung says. He takes Jungkook’s mug from him and hands it to his friend.

Namjoon has the same reaction as Jimin though. He compliments Yoongi on the perfectly-seasoned blend and takes another big drink. Jungkook and Taehyung glance at each other, because neither of them can understand how the others can stomach it.

“You said that you have been allowing Jungkook to drink from you, correct?” Namjoon asks, because they were interrupted by the appearance of the fledgling before.

Taehyung hesitates, because there is a wider audience now. They all stare at him. “Yes,” he says succinctly.

Jimin’s eyes go wide. Yoongi finally does meet them when he glances over, and they have their silent conversation. Even Namjoon looks stunned at the direct confirmation. Taehyung himself would be too – hearing it from anyone, let alone from him. “Wow,” Namjoon says quietly. Jungkook nervously looks back and forth between his sire and Namjoon. He must be starting to understand how big of a thing it is.

Namjoon finally clears his throat to force the surprise to pass. “Unless you are committing to being each other’s food source,” he says, “you will have to make the adjustment to blood bags, or to humans. It is a taste you are going to have to grow accustomed to. You both taste, well… different to each other.” He looks visibly uncomfortable saying, because of how intimate and rare of a thing it is to talk about. Taehyung can tell they all feel embarrassed discussing it – except for Jungkook, who just looks confused because he cannot fully grasp it yet.

“As sire and fledgling,” Namjoon, their intelligent scholar full of a wealth of knowledge, carries on, “you will be drawn to other’s blood and find comfort in it because of the dynamic that ties you two together. It is not as though sires and fledglings are a common pair, since sires are not common. But those that exist–it is not something they have to, uh, adjust to, because the exchange of blood is not something given to then develop a taste to…”

Before they all get too embarrassed again, he continues. “Sires generally allow the physical binding to fade within the first month for the comfort of both parties, while the fledgling will still remain in the sire’s care. This involves spending time apart from one another and leaving the fledgling to attempt to survive on their own. It sounds heartless, but sire-fledgling relationships are not exactly relationships – more so one who has turned, and been turned, and that is all.

“Part of that, I suspect, includes adjusting to the taste of an alternate food source. That is usually not required, since, er, feeding between sire and fledgling does not occur. Thus I am afraid I do not have any resources I can provide on how to make this adjustment. I believe you will just have to keep drinking blood from other sources until you get used to it.”

The kitchen falls silent. The air is so uncomfortably awkward that Taehyung cannot think enough to find any words to respond with. After several moments, he finally clears his throat. “I see,” he says. “Jungkook and I will discuss–” Jungkook’s presence beside him disappears. His absence brings with it a loud crash and a groan of pain.

Faster than Taehyung has ever moved before, he is out of the kitchen. In the hallway, pushed against the wall, is Jungkook with the newborn vampire staying here just milliseconds away from biting him. There is fear in Jungkook’s eyes as he looks at him over the man’s shoulder. Taehyung grabs the vampire whose name he does not know by the hair. He pulls his head one way and his body the other until the two are no longer connected. It all lasted merely a second, from Jungkook’s absence to Taehyung dropping the two dismembered parts to the floor.

Before he can go to his fledgling to comfort him, his shoulder is shoved by Baekhyun. He had already forgotten about his and the newborn’s existence, so focused on his fledgling to care about the other happenings of the manor. “You are the one who brought someone with human blood here knowing a newborn was here!” Baekhyun shouts as if he cares about the death of the newborn. It is confirmed when eyes flit to Taehyung’s neck, where puncture holes are still healing. It is eerie and telling how easily his focus shifts. “You allow him to feed on you?”

Taehyung realizes Baekhyun does not even know what the newborn’s name was. He does not know Jungkook’s name either, and Taehyung intends to keep it that way. He does not know where this possession comes from, as if he has any right to Taehyung, any right to be upset that he is being fed on by another. It makes Taehyung seethe to think that anyone believes he belongs to them in any capacity, that they think they have access to even the smallest parts of him. Anyone but his fledgling.

Baekhyun turns to Jungkook with poison in his eyes. Taehyung grabs him before he can even make a move. Baekhyun finds himself at the other end of the hall, his body thrown against the wall hard enough that the wall cracks and the ceiling sends flakes of dust down. Taehyung thinks that the ceiling would collapse if the manor weren’t built so sturdily. He would think Baekhyun would do the same if his passions weren’t so wildly misplaced. He recovers faster than Taehyung would have thought, and he stalks after Jungkook again, quickening into a sprint that makes his moving form a blur.

Taehyung stops him before he can even get close. He has him by the neck, and his fingers dig in deeper and deeper until he can feel what resides beneath every layer of his skin as it oozes around the intrusion. He slams him down into the floor with a resounding crack of his skull. It is not hard enough to kill him, but enough to break through even his high tolerance of pain. “Do not go near my fledgling,” he shouts. He can hear everyone in the manor tremble from the deathly, chilling threat in his words. Taehyung looks over his shoulder at Baekhyun’s friends and his own that are gathered there, watching with fear. “Get him out of here or I will kill him.” He wants to, he really wants to, but he is afraid he has already done irreparable damage to Jungkook who has been watching this whole time, and he does not want to make it worse. At least a moment ago, the newborn was clearly rabid. This time would be different.

He gets off of Baekhyun before he digs into his neck further to reach down to the bone. He kicks him once he is standing though, sending him into the wall again, the art hanging there crashing to the ground around him.

He wipes the blood and gore from his hands, and he walks to Jungkook. With the same hands that killed and harmed so many times before, he takes Jungkook’s hand so, so gently. He sees the fear in Jungkook’s eyes, the roundness that comes from fright rather than sweet curiosity. It makes Taehyung feel sick. He does not know if he can live with himself if his fledgling fears him.

“Come, my love, it is okay,” he says. He does not even need to put effort in making his voice soft, even as his vocal cords ache from the way he spoke to the others. “Let’s go to our room, my sweetheart.”

Jungkook will not move. His eyes do not stray from looking into Taehyung’s as he remains frozen where he was attacked. Taehyung’s hands rest on Jungkook’s cheeks as he gazes into his doe eyes. “I would die before I would ever, ever hurt you, my little fledgling. I would burn the world down to keep you safe. You are safe with me, my love. You are so safe. Come.” Jungkook finally shakily nods. “Good,” Taehyung says with so much relief in his tone. “Good. Let’s go, my sweet, darling boy. You are my world.” He takes Jungkook’s hand again, and Jungkook lets him lead him away. They leave and do not look behind them to see what they are leaving there. They walk through the manor, back to Taehyung’s living quarters.

Taehyung locks the door behind them, even though anyone could enter without any effort. Jungkook is trembling from where he sits on the edge of the bed.

“Oh, no, my sweet boy,” Taehyung says. He falls to his knees in front of Jungkook. He looks up at him, trying to show that he is powerless to him. “I’m–I am sorry you saw that, my Jungkook, and I am sorry that he touched you. How can I make it better, my love? Tell me and I will do it. P-Please stop shaking, darling, you are never in danger with me. Never, I will never cause you harm, I–”

“C-Cold,” Jungkook manages to stutter out.

“You’re–you’re cold?” Taehyung asks. He thinks Jungkook nods, but he isn’t sure with the way his entire body is shaking as if he was stranded in the middle of a winter snowstorm. “Oh, I–I–” He has never in his life wished to be warm more than he does right now. “O-Okay, let’s get you into the bath, maybe, then–” He stands, but before he can even move away, Jungkook is pulling him onto the bed.

“N-No–y-you–I need–”

“No, sweetheart, I will make it worse,” Taehyung says, his voice cracking halfway through. A tear glides down his cheek. Jungkook keeps trying to tug him closer and it breaks him to resist. “I’m t-too cold, my love, I can’t, please, I will make it worse–”

Jungkook finally pulls him in fully. Taehyung collapses down onto him, pushing Jungkook down into the mattress with the weight of his body fully on top of him.

Slowly, slowly, Jungkook’s trembling subsides. But Taehyung’s begins.

This isn’t… it’s not. It is not what he is thinking. It cannot be. The warmth that he feels in the places they are touching, it is only in his head. It is his own selfishness mudling what he believes because he is allowed to be so close to his fledgling. It is only that.

He feels the embers of warmth inside, and that is enough to make it cry in itself.

But it is not only inside. If it were, Jungkook would not be able to withstand them touching for this long. He is still here. He is still here, and Taehyung is the reason he is no longer trembling from the cold he was feeling. Taehyung is the reason he is now warm. Jungkook is the reason he is warm too.

Jungkook lies on his back, and Taehyung lies on top of him in the way Jungkook wanted him when he pulled him down. The fronts of their bodies are touching. Through their t-shirts, Taehyung can feel the warmth of body heat. It is a sensation he has not felt in centuries. He can feel it even more where their skin touches directly. Their biceps. Their cheeks, their faces touching.

Taehyung feels warmth.

He feels his own skin, and it is not just what is coming from Jungkook. He himself is warm.

He is warm. He is able to feel it, and he is able to give it. He is no longer cold. It is as if he were submerged in a bath without the water temperature turning frigid just a moment later. It is so much more than that, because this is his fledgling. He is so close to his fledgling. He can feel his warmth inside. He can feel the contentment, the ease, the absence of fear, the security and safety that is in its place, all because of him.

“J-Jungkook, am I warm?” he asks, his voice sounding frantic even as he whispers.

Jungkook’s arms wrap around him, and Taehyung’s entire body shudders. He almost tries to scramble away because he–he does not know what to do. Jungkook pulls him down fully, forcing himself to relax, to drape his full body weight onto him. He hums a dreamy sound. He holds him tighter as if he were warming his hands in front of a fire. “Warm,” he just mumbles as if he were drunk off of it, and it is what is beginning to cloud Taehyung too.

Warmth. He feels it. He is it. It has been a minute, maybe two, and he still feels it. He has not turned the brief reprieve cold in an instant. It is still here. He is warm right now. A second passes, and he still is. More, more, more, and he remains warm. He is warm. He is not cold, he is not a corpse kept alive. He is warm. His heart beats and he is warm. He feels it, every inch of it, almost burning where his body touches Jungkook’s.

His breaths are deep, his eyes closing, his head feeling foggy. He is foggy and fuzzy and it is why this feeling feels as if he is stepping into its place again, as if it were here and he has slipped back in, it existed and he is returning, they are, his vision is hazy and he closes his eyes again. He tucks his face into Jungkook’s neck, and his deep breaths cause him to inhale his scent. He becomes drunk off of it, intoxicated off the feeling, the scent, the emotions they are sharing, his fledgling, his sire, the two of them, connected and tied together, bound together, Taehyung cannot tell where one stops and the other starts, who is the fledgling, who is the sire. Taehyung presses his nose against his skin, inhaling, smelling his fledgling, maybe his sire, his love, maybe his love, yes, his love, again, his scent invading him, his warmth all over him, inside him.

“Bite,” Taehyung says, the word coming out as just a breath, barely there, not fully realizing he is saying it. “B-Bite, want to bite you, w-want to taste you, f-feed from you. Can I? Please, darling, p-please, can I? Can I bite you? Please, please, l-let me–” Jungkook nods, his chest humming, maybe physically, maybe thrumming with the warmth, the anticipation, the rightness. “Thank you, my darling, my love, th-thank you, th-thank–” His fangs slide into Jungkook as if that is where they belong, where they have belonged, where they belong. He isn’t sure if that sound comes from him or from Jungkook, or what it was at all. His venom flows into him freely as his mouth fills with blood, and he can barely swallow it because he can barely focus on anything but that feeling, that one that has been in his chest every second with Jungkook, growing every moment from the second he saw him, getting bigger and bigger and warmer and warmer until the knot was pulled tight and it lit up with warmth, this warmth, inside and out, in his chest, against their skin, in his mouth as his blood flows into it. His arm raises, and he rests his wrist against Jungkook’s lips. His fangs slide in as easily as his venom does. Taehyung has not taught him how to use it yet, but it is just given to him, as their blood enters each other, as they breathe against each other, warmth connecting them, blood mixing together, Jungkook’s entering him, his entering Jungkook’s, becoming what they feed off of, what will feed each other, always, give and take, becoming one. The venom–the venom does not matter, it is not what he feels, it is the euphoria, the bliss, the wholeness as they feed, sire and fledgling becoming, becoming, the bond thrumming, bodies becoming each other, becoming made of each other, becoming what keeps them there, keeps them living. He swallows mouthfuls of Jungkook, his fledgling drinking from him too, noises in the room, coming from them, unidentifiable what they are. The bond vibrates, strengthens, tangling and tightening, sire and fledgling, fledgling and sire, his love, his love, his love, his love.

His fangs slide out, and Jungkook’s do too. Tongues against the other’s skin, closing the wounds, healing the puncture holes before more will come later. Not today, not tonight, because Taehyung sinks further, and Jungkook does too. Sleep drapes over them like a comforting blanket, holding them and swaddling them as they hold each other, two people becoming one.

Chapter Text

Taehyung does not wake up first, but he lets Jungkook pretend that he does.

When Jungkook slept before, Taehyung could feel it in him. The dormancy, the lack of anything good or bad as his body rested.

Jungkook is awake when he himself wakes. Taehyung can feel the warmth and contentment that naturally rests in him – sleepy right now, but there. Taehyung wakes partially on top of Jungkook, whose eyes are closed as he pretends to sleep. Taehyung has his arm and leg over him with his head in his neck. Jungkook’s arm is wrapped around him, the hand on his other one resting on Taehyung’s arm.

Taehyung does not remember how he got here. He tries to stretch his memory back to whenever he was last awake. He squints through the fog that shrouds it.

When he remembers, the embarrassment that rises in him would have been strong enough to wake Jungkook if he had actually been asleep.

He slowly moves off of Jungkook, pretending like he is trying not to wake him. He goes to his bedroom’s en suite bathroom, and he splashes cold water on his face as if he can wash the embarrassment away.

He pats his face dry with a hand towel, then he looks himself over in the mirror. He presses his lips together seeing the blood on his neck. It looks messy and garish, just like he remembers the feeding. The mutual feeding. God, what had gotten into him? Not only feeding from another vampire, but his fledgling? He quickly wets a cloth and begins to wipe the dried blood away, as if he can erase that it happened. It is one thing for Jungkook to feed from him – it is okay, more than okay; Taehyung loves it – but to do it in return?

He sets the cloth aside and looks at his reflection.

He looks the same as he has for the past two hundred years. The same sharp eyes, a dark brown right now without the need to feed. Wavy black hair with some strands stripped of their color. His downturned lips that have always been that way, not a response to his long life.

You have to be his sire, he reminds himself. You have to guide him. It is not the time to be embarrassed or shy. He is certain Jungkook is feeling those things exponentially more, even though Taehyung can’t feel it; all there mostly is is sleepiness. Still, they will talk, because last night…

Once he is certain that he is composed enough, that his maturity is in a tight grip and he remembers who he is, he goes back out into the bedroom. Jungkook is sitting up in bed now, no longer pretending to be asleep. His back is against the headboard with the blanket still across his legs. He looks sleepy and adorably ruffled.

Taehyung returns to Jungkook, who watches him approach. Just the sight of Jungkook helps calm Taehyung’s nerves. “Good morning, my little fledgling,” he says. He stands beside the bed and pets his hair, trying to brush down some of the fluffiness with more familiarity than he thinks he has earned. Maybe that is untrue, because Jungkook just leans into it. “Did you sleep well?”

Jungkook nods, then he very dramatically yawns. Taehyung supposes Jungkook is just made of dramatics. “‘s nice sleeping in a real bed…” he says as he pets the velvet and silk duvet that is still over him.

“You will always have a comfortable bed and a pillow to lay your head on, and food for yourself, and warmth, and everything you could ever want if you choose to stay here,” Taehyung says. “Or if you allow me to help you wherever you wish to go.” The second part makes his heart ache. He tries as hard as he can to control it so Jungkook cannot feel it too. He would never force Jungkook to do something he does not wish to do once Taehyung is sure he is not a danger and he can release him from their bond and let him out into the world. “But speaking of that, we should talk about some things.”

Taehyung feels Jungkook’s unease, but the boy nods. “Okay, s-sire…” Taehyung hopes Jungkook could not feel what coursed through him from hearing what he is falling from his lips for the first time.

He carefully sits on the end of the bed, across from Jungkook. He takes a breath to gather himself, trying to think of where to start when there is so much to be said. There should not be this much to say yet – not about anything that is not about Jungkook being a new vampire. He is only a fledgling; he should not have been involved in so much drama already. All they should have to talk about should be about how he is progressing and how he is feeling after being turned.

“I am deeply sorry for what you were a part of yesterday,” he finally says, hanging his head and tilting his body forward in as deep of a bow that he can. “I am sure that it was traumatizing for you, and I wish you had not been a part of that. Please, please know, Jungkook-ah, that you will never be unsafe with me. Never in my life would I ever hurt you, and I will always do absolutely anything in my power to make sure no harm will come to you – and the possibility of that coming from me does not exist. I apologize for what you saw, and if it caused you any pain or makes you doubt me, or look at me differently. I will do anything I can to regain your trust and faith in me.”

“Taehyung,” Jungkook stops him before he can go on – which he planned to, because he could apologize to him and try to reassure him for days without end. Before Jungkook goes on though, he says, “–hyung?”

Taehyung chuckles. “Honorifics are useless with someone as old as I am,” he says, “so ‘hyung’ is not necessary. But you may call me whatever you wish.”

“Taehyung,” Jungkook says again. “I don’t–you don’t–I don’t think of you any differently. It’s–it’s okay. I didn’t, like, like seeing it. B-But please don’t be upset about it… Okay?”

The relief Taehyung feels is probably strong enough to be transferred to Jungkook as well. “Okay,” Taehyung says. He feels like it is undeserved, but he is happy to take it. “I am glad. You will never be unsafe as long as you are with me. But there is more we should talk about. And I am sorry for us not having this talk sooner. I have never sired anybody before, so it has been kind of a lot for me, as it has been for you, I think.”

“You’ve never been anybody’s sire before?” Jungkook asks, his tone unreadable.

Taehyung shakes his head. “No. I have never turned anybody, nor have I ever wanted to be responsible for or tied to a newborn.”

The expression that passes over Jungkook’s face is not unreadable. “Oh…” he says quietly, looking down at his lap. Taehyung can tell that an apology is on the tip of his tongue, so he moves closer.

He takes Jungkook’s hand. He marvels at the warmth of it. His touch will only make it warmer, when it has been the opposite for so long. He brushes his thumb over his knuckles. “That is until you, my little fledgling,” he says softly. “I have never been given an honor so grand as to be your sire.”

He watches a lovely blush rise to Jungkook’s cheeks. Taehyung’s mind supplies that it is possible because Taehyung’s own blood is what fills the ocean beneath his skin. Jungkook shyly looks away, down at their hands. “You talk like you’re a million years old…” he mutters.

Taehyung throws his head back and laughs. He leans forward and takes a hold of Jungkook’s earlobe and gently tugs. Jungkook whines, but a smile is on his face too as he slaps his hand away. “Show your sire some respect, silly boy,” he playfully scolds. Jungkook’s smile is perhaps the loveliest thing he has ever seen before. It, too, is an honor to behold, let alone be the cause of it. It is so lovely how comfortable Jungkook seems to be here with him. How easily he accepts these touches from him, how he leans into them. How freely he teases and whines, as if they have known each other for ages. Perhaps he was lonely, just like Taehyung was. Perhaps it is something else.

He redirects his mind to what he sat down to speak about. He cringes and wishes they could continue to evade the topic, but he must be responsible and worthy of being connected to Jungkook in this way. So he says, “You have heard that it is not… customary for fledgling and sire to allow one another to drink from them.”

Jungkook darts his eyes up, and Taehyung feels his urgency. “I–I–Taehyung, s-sire, I had no idea. If I knew that were the case, I would have never–well, that’s probably not true, because I don’t even really remember waking up because of how hungry I felt–but if you had thrown me off, I wouldn’t have even minded. I’m sorry, I didn’t kn–”

“Darling boy, it is okay,” Taehyung stops his rambling. He continues to brush his thumb across his knuckles to try to soothe him. “If I wanted to push you off, I could have and would have. But in the same vein, I apologize if you felt like you owed it to me to allow me to feed from you. I just… I let myself stray from myself and my duties, and I should not have. I will not again. I am sorry if you felt persuaded by me, or felt as if you did not have a choice.”

“N-No, I wanted you to…” Jungkook says, sounding like he’s forcing the quiet words out. “I didn’t feel that way. I wanted you to.”

“O-Oh…” Taehyung says. He is not certain that Jungkook grasps what the exchange between them meant, since he has only been a vampire for a few days.

“Why is it such a big deal?” he asks.

Taehyung does not know how he can explain it, because it is just something that one comes to know with age. It is difficult to find a way to describe the intricacies when they are not often thought about, let alone the severity of it all.

“It is… hard to explain,” he finally says. “You will learn the context further on, better than I am able to explain it. There is an intimacy to it that is difficult to wrap one’s head around. A sense of trust that is difficult to achieve. It is almost a surrender of power, to allow yourself to be fed on. To allow yourself to become part of another. I suppose it is seen as yielding to another person, when many vampires fight to be more powerful than all others. It is a strange dynamic to occur, where the one being fed from has power over the other and is giving themself over to feed them, to be the reason they are kept alive, while also submitting to them too, because they are being fed from. Feeding is such a vulnerable thing as well. You become so vulnerable as you become so absorbed, so lost in your hunger and your desperation to quench it. And when like that with another vampire, you are without power too. It is perhaps a show of submission, to consume or to be so consumed. It is a gesture that means more than just the action. It is intimate and vulnerable, and unheard of to occur even between the closest of mates. So between sire and fledgling, it’s not… it does not happen.”

“O-Oh…” Jungkook says. His disbelief and confusion are at war as it settles in. “Then–then why did you let me?”

Taehyung wishes he had the words to convey it to him. He wishes Jungkook could have lived as him these past few months. Maybe his entire life before that too, so he could truly understand. So he can understand how much all of this means to him. So he can see how he views him, how devoted he is.

“I may be your guider, or the one seen with the power over you,” he says carefully, hoping it does not sound authoritarian, “but I am really here to serve you, my darling. I do not wish for our dynamic to be what it has been for others, because I do not see you that way. I am powerless to you.” I have been from the very first moment I saw you. “I am at your command, whatever that may be.” They are words he never in his life thought he would have said, an unspeakable thing he would have laughed at the mere suggestion of. Now, nothing has been truer than that he is here to serve and care for his fledgling. “And if that is being your indefinite food source, it will be provided for you, as would anything else you need or desire.”

Perhaps Jungkook grasps the idea better than assumed, because he looks speechless. He blinks at him, lips parted. As unexpected as these words from Taehyung are, it cannot compare to what Jungkook says next.

So quietly, he says, “W-Want you to, um, feed from me too…”

Taehyung matches his expression from before. Lips parted, eyes blinking. It takes several heartbeats to form a thought, then several more to figure out what to say. And eloquently, it is, “What?”

“B-Because, like, w-why wouldn’t it be that way, you know? We’re both here, and I, um, liked it, when it is me from you and you from me, s-so it just makes sense, right?”

“Darling, this is–it cannot be an arrangement done out of convenience.”

“No, no, I–” Jungkook presses his lips together. He shakes his head. “That’s not why I said it. I can’t–s-say. But just… that’s not why I said it.”

Taehyung can feel his panic. His nervousness and desperation to be understood. He can see it on his face too, the way he looks unsure and overwhelmed. Taehyung knows what he means though. He believes him. That that is not why it was proposed.

“If that is what you desire,” he finally says, speaking calmly to try to soothe him, “then it is what will be.”

“But what about what you want?” Jungkook asks.

“I want this as well,” Taehyung says. He cannot think about it fully just yet. That–that his fledgling wants him to feed from him. That he will be feeding from another vampire, and his fledgling in particular. Jungkook in particular. To be allowed this… He cannot think about it yet. “I think it is an absolute honor that you will allow me of this in return. And you did taste quite good too.” It makes Jungkook laugh with a returning blush rising to his cheeks before it has even fully left yet. This is all so– “How are you so comfortable with all of this? With being a vampire now? It seems as though you have had no emotional or mental reservations about any of it. It is strange, to be honest. Are you in shock? Would you like to talk about it? Or speak to someone else about it?”

Jungkook shrugs. He starts to fidget with Taehyung’s fingers, which makes Taehyung realize his hand is still within his hold. Somehow this means more than what they were just speaking about. Jungkook using his fingers to absentmindedly fidget with. To be touched and used so casually, as if something in him knows that Taehyung is his, and he is safe to be himself with him. Jungkook bends each of his fingers at the knuckle, folding them and feeling them. Then pushing down particularly hard on his index finger until the knuckle cracks, making Taehyung jump. “Hey!” he says with a surprised laugh. It just makes Jungkook giggle impishly. God, the way this boy makes Taehyung feel.

“I was homeless and alone for a really long time,” Jungkook finally says, “so anything could have happened and I’d be like, ‘Whatever,’ really. Anything would probably be better than it being how it was forever. And I already knew about vampires, so,” he shrugs, “not a whole big revelation to find out they’re real and to be one suddenly. I was around them kind of a lot, and I went to each meet-up with them knowing I could be dead in one way or another by the end of it, and I didn’t really care one way or the other. I just… I dunno. I didn’t care. This is nicer than the way things were before.”

Taehyung nods. That makes sense. There are so many things within that that breaks his heart, but it sheds a good light on why this is so easy for him. At least this part – the accepting part. Everything else – how good and well-behaved and normal he is this early in his transformation – does not make any sense.

Still, he wishes Jungkook did not have to be so accepting of this new life. He should not have had to be so apathetic of anything happening for something as big and inconceivable as this to be so easily accepted.

“Please do not answer if you do not wish to do so,” Taehyung says before he reluctantly asks, “Why were you homeless?”

“Just kind of a… a series of shitty events, and never getting any good luck,” Jungkook says with a shaky sigh. “I’m from a really small town a few hours outside of the city. Like, really small, an everyone-knows-everyone type of thing. Usually people say that in a nice way, like everyone has each other’s backs, but it was kind of a town where people go when they have no other options. Everyone was always just barely getting by, so it was how I grew up to begin with.

“Once I graduated high school, I stayed behind to help out my family. College was never an option – both because we didn’t have the money for it, and because I was expected to stay and help with the family’s finances – so I got a job to try to keep me and my family alive. And about two years out of high school, when I was twenty or twenty-one, there was this, um–” but then he abruptly stops. His eyes go from vulnerable and far away as he remembers an unfortunate past life, to sharp and judgmental, distrusting.

Taehyung’s own eyes go wide, unsure why he’s suddenly being looked at like this. “If you’ve changed your mind, you don’t have to tell me,” he says, just in case he’s had a change of heart.

Jungkook narrows his eyes at him. “You’re old,” he says.

Taehyung sputters for a moment. “Well, yes,” he says, a faint question mark at the end.

“And… the world only started to change pretty recently, and is still pretty behind.”

Taehyung is very confused. He rests a hand on Jungkook’s knee and briefly squeezes. “Can you tell me what is on your mind, darling? I’m afraid I am not picking up on the subliminal here.”

Jungkook swallows, and his eyes become less sharp when he drops their eye contact. He takes a breath. “I used to draw…” he continues. “I used to like art a lot.” Taehyung is confused. That does not seem warranted to send someone into homelessness over. Not that anything is, but. “My dad–he wasn’t a very nice guy, and both of my parents were very conservative and religious and a little mean. Everyone in town was that way.

“My dad saw my sketchbook because I accidentally left it out one day when I was late for work, and I had a lot of drawings of, um… Like, men. A man. L-Like, studies. Not any man in particular, and not even anything really explicit, but I think that part is what set him off. The fact that they weren’t sexual, but more so… Ugh, I don’t know. Whatever. He knew they weren’t the drawings of a straight guy, so he threw me out. I didn’t have any money of my own, and I couldn’t stay in that town. So I had to leave, and I came to the city.”

He pauses to take a breath, so Taehyung interjects. He softly chuckles as kindly as he can, trying to make Jungkook see how silly it is to have hesitated in telling him that. “Jungkook-ah, do you think I have been alive for nearly two hundred years, and have never even dabbled in thoughts of the same gender as me? I think it is appalling that you have been exiled for that reason. You are safe here, because you will always be safe with me, and because the others are like us as well. You have briefly met Jimin and Yoongi, and there is another who you have yet to meet named Hoseok. The three of them have chosen each other to spend their lives together. You’ve met Namjoon as well, but have yet to meet his partner Seokjin. All of us are that way – whether it’s strictly loving the same gender, or having loved any of them. You are safe here.”

“O-Oh…” Jungkook says casually, as if Taehyung cannot feel his profound relief. Jungkook swallows. “And what about… you? Do you have a partner?”

Taehyung wonders if Jungkook felt what he just felt. A punch of despair so strong it nearly caused him to collapse before it disappeared without a trace. Replaced, instead, with a reel of daydreams that came to his head, unbidden but too unclear to even pick any of them out. He can feel, though, the strange sensation that follows. He probably cannot identify it, because Taehyung cannot do so himself. A sadness so close to him that feels like a mere memory now. A sadness that has turned into mere yearning and longing, not an agony he never fully recognized but felt so familiar.

“I do not,” he says. He does not have more to say than that.

Jungkook slowly nods. “Haven’t you been lonely?” he asks. “Not that not having a partner means you’re lonely, because it doesn’t, or that one would make you not feel that way. But, you know, you’re old, so…”

Taehyung snorts and shakes his head. He admires the bluntness of the question. How self-assured this strange boy is. “I was,” he says. “When I met my friends who live here with us, much of it went away, but some has always lingered when one has been alive for as long as I have.” That is putting it so, so lightly. He does not bore him though, or make him pity him with the extent of his loneliness, the chasm he has been in alone for so long. Nor does he realize the extent of how he feels now until he says, “But I have never felt so far away from that as I have these past few days.” Jungkook’s eyes dart up finally, connecting with his own. Taehyung can tell he wants to ask what he might be thinking but doesn’t want to be so presumptuous to do so, so Taehyung answers the unspoken question anyway.

“Because I have you, my little fledgling,” he says. “I meant it when I said that it feels like the greatest honor I have received, for more reasons than one.”

“O-Oh…” Jungkook says. He drops their eye contact again, looking down at where he continues to fidget with his sire’s fingers. Taehyung watches him fight against the twitching corners of his lips, trying to hide how pleased he is, as if Taehyung cannot feel it himself. “I w-was really lonely too… I came to the city five or six years ago, and I never really was able to catch up. I didn’t have any money to get a place to stay. I came here with nothing but what was left over from buying a train ticket. I didn’t have any of the documents I needed – my birth certificate, a license, any identification – that would let me get a job, or to even show I exist. I didn’t have any friends, or any other family to turn to. I couldn’t make any friends, because no one wanted to speak to a homeless kid, and others like me tended to not be anyone I could trust. I just… never caught back up, and have been living shelter to shelter or outside when I used up all of my stays for the month, and sometimes there’d be months in between if the shelters were full. I was alone that whole time, a-and–and almost, um, you know… tried to get out of that.” Taehyung knows what he means. It is something he is so intimately familiar with himself. “I obsessively thought about how I could just… make all of that disappear. Make myself disappear, because it was like I was invisible anyway. S-So, I guess that’s why I’ve just been like ‘okay, sure, whatever’ about being bitten and turned.

“But that’s not the point of what I was saying. I just… I was lonely too. And having a place to stay in, and a bed, and not living outside in the cold, and having food – all of those things aren’t what–what feels the best out of everything. It’s just–I don’t feel so alone anymore. B-Because of you. Y-You’re nice, and I like you, and I just–I felt so empty before, like I was just empty, like there was this hole in my chest. It felt like that before I was even homeless, when I had a place to stay and food and was with my parents. It was still there. It’s always felt that way for as long as I can remember, and it got even worse when I was completely alone. B-But it’s not there anymore, because I can feel you there instead. A-And I–I like it…”

Taehyung is unable to recall a time where his vision ever was so blurry, having to blink the tears in his eyes away. It is such a simple admission, but it feels so big. It feels like so much more, because Taehyung knows how he feels. He understands. He can feel it too. “How was I given such a sweet boy, hm?” he asks softly. “I have done nothing to deserve it, nothing would be deserving of such a blessing as you.” He cannot fight against the tug in his chest, as if it were Jungkook himself pulling him forward. Taehyung moves up the bed so he is beside him now. He asks, “Will you allow me to hold you? I want to be close to my little fledgling.” Before Taehyung has even finished the sentence, Jungkook is leaning into his arms. Taehyung wonders how he manages to make himself so little when they are the same size, and Jungkook is larger in some aspects.

He is not right now though. He is his little fledgling, making himself small as if to let his sire hold him more fully. Taehyung wraps both arms around the boy. Jungkook’s knees are to his chest as he leans into him, his head tucked against his collarbone. Taehyung feels whole.

Jungkook is safe here. Right here, in his sire’s arms. He is not hungry. He is not in any danger. He is not cold. It is that thought that makes Taehyung feel the warmth. There is so much in his life now that it is difficult to reckon with it all. It’s just–it is so much more. His life is so much more than it once was, and so suddenly. It is hard to know what to focus on when there is so much, and it is all so, so lovely. There is not even a word to describe any of it. Warmth, wholeness, the sense of being complete.

He holds Jungkook closer and tighter, trying to keep this warmth here. He keeps waiting for it to disappear – to either turn Jungkook’s skin cold, or for him to flinch away when the chill settles into him.

Neither happen. Jungkook nuzzles his cheek against his collarbone and stays close.

Taehyung briefly spares a thought on how this is the boy he watched for so long. The boy whose shadow he became, watching him sleep alone in the cold night. This is the same boy, but, like everything, he is so much more. He knows who he is now, at least the glimpses of himself he has shared, and it is so wonderful. He feels so right in his arms. He is safe.

“Thank you for telling me everything,” Taehyung says. “I feel lucky that you trust me enough to share something so personal. If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know. No matter how big or small, physical or emotional. And we will get some affairs in order for you as well. We will get you a birth certificate, and other identification you will need at some point or another.” He places a finger beneath Jungkook’s chin. He tilts his head up so their eyes can meet. Their faces are close. Close enough to feel Jungkook’s breath against his lips. Taehyung can see the shapes of each of the sparkles in those dark eyes, such a beautiful red clinging to the edges like ivy to a window. “You exist,” he says quietly, wanting to remind him that his loneliness he felt does not mean that he is alone and forgotten. Not any longer. “To the world, and to me, even if it is hard to believe that someone so special is real. Thank you for telling me, and for allowing me to hold you.”

Jungkook shyly tucks his head back to where it was before. Taehyung can feel the warmth of his cheek as he blushes, hidden away from view. “Don’t have to thank me…” he mumbles.

Taehyung wracks his brain for anything else they need to talk about. There is a lot, but it is hard to think when he has his little fledgling right here, where he can feel how content and calm he is. “Are you hungry, darling?” he asks. “I believe we slept for some time.”

“Yeah, a little,” Jungkook says.

Even though he is reluctant to do it, Taehyung moves away from beside him. Jungkook hides his whine, but not the pout on his lips. Taehyung adores the sight of it, as long as it comes from his whiny ways, and not something deeper.

“You can feed,” Taehyung says, “but first, I want you to show me how you can move your fangs.”

Jungkook’s eyes go wide. “But–but I don’t know how.”

“You do,” Taehyung insists. “You did it already, and it is not difficult. They are out right now.” He has been able to hear that they have been out this whole time because of the subtle lisp they give Jungkook when he speaks. Taehyung reaches out and pokes the tip of one to prove it, and it makes Jungkook smile and put them on full display. Taehyung has to look away; he cannot bear it quite yet. “Imagine them sliding up into your gums, or imagine the sharp points of them rounding out. Yeah, see? Just like that, darling. Easy, right?”

“I did it?” Jungkook asks, doe eyes wide as if he is not a predator. He is a vampire, but he really is just a boy. Curious and sweet and trying his best. He supposes they all are, deep down. Some are just more buried than others.

“Mhm,” he nods with a fond smile. “Now imagine dropping them again. Imagine feeding, or anything else that would work for you to bring them out again.” Taehyung watches as his fangs elongate just enough to form a deadly point at the ends. Taehyung coos and matches Jungkook’s excited smile. “Such a talented boy, aren’t you, hm? Talented little fledgling. It took me at least a month to get control of my own fangs, and look at you, just within the first few days.” Taehyung feels like the inside of his chest is glittering and sparkling. He only feels a fraction of what Jungkook does when the feelings are not his own, so he isn’t very certain how Jungkook is even able to sit still when he has the full effect of his feelings.

“When other vampires have fed on you, have you ever felt their venom?” Taehyung asks.

Jungkook’s eyebrows furrow. “Venom?”

Taehyung knows he felt his venom yesterday, but he doesn’t think either of them were really in their right minds to be able to recall it fully now. Well, Jungkook probably wasn’t, since he is so young and has less of a hold over himself. Taehyung will be able to revisit it in his head for the rest of eternity, for better or for worse.

Taehyung nods. “It is the reason why humans sometimes show up here to offer themselves, why any of them seek vampires out. The effect of our venom is similar to that of a drug when injected during feeding.”

“Oh,” Jungkook says. “Does it feel good?”

Taehyung swallows. He clears his throat. “I… Prior to last night, I had not felt it before.”

Jungkook blinks at him. “You mean… mine?”

Taehyung clears his throat again and nods. “Yes. And I had not given mine to anybody before either." Not enough to do anything more than briefly dull the sting of a bite. "Do you not recall feeling it?”

“I… I don’t know… Last n-night was kind of confusing, because everything felt good… It felt good before you bit me and when you did and after too, so I don’t really know which part was the venom, and which part was, um–” he cuts himself off as he intensely blushes, but continues, “just you.”

Taehyung feels flustered and would like to hide, but he reminds himself that he is Jungkook’s sire, and he is here to lead him and soothe him through this. Even though ‘this’ is meant to mean his new vampirism, not these strange, shy occurrences that keep appearing to fluster them both.

“Last night felt good for me as well,” Taehyung says. He takes his hand again. “Venom does not stand a chance next to the feeling of simply being close to you. Whenever it is time for me to feed again, I can give some of mine to you, if you wish. I–”

“Taehyung.”

Taehyung blinks at him. “Yes?”

“Why did you used to stalk me?”

“O-Oh,” Taehyung says. His stomach drops. He wonders if Jungkook could feel it. He slowly pulls his hand out of Jungkook’s and fights not to move away completely. He clears his throat. He does not fully know himself. There is so much he does not know that he is asked about by Jungkook. He tries his best. “Well, I was truthful with what I told you. I was enchanted by you from the moment I saw you. It was as confusing for me to feel as I am sure it is to hear that you were being watched. There is not a grand reason, or anything I was hoping to achieve. There were not any intentions that I had. I was out on a walk like I took every night, and I saw you. I saw others sometimes, have seen many others in my decades of walking. B-But I saw you, and something made me pause. You looked so vulnerable as you slept out in the open, and I wanted to watch over you to make sure you would be okay. I kept feeling that need after that night, to make sure you were safe and would have some things to make your life easier. Then you disappeared for a few days, and…” He shakes his head as he recalls that desperation he felt. He would like to end it there, especially because it is embarrassing to relay it all, and he fears that it will make Jungkook turn on him. For his emotions and the safety he has been feeling to change course.

Taehyung does not have the right to feel that way though, because he is the one who did the distasteful, invasive things.

So he continues when Jungkook prompts, “And?”

“And I scoured the city for you. I spent entire days and nights searching for you, trying to track you down. It was–”

“Wait, we can go outside during the day?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung shakes his head, feeling even more embarrassed. He has always been such a prideful person. “No, we cannot.”

“Then how aren’t you dead?”

Well, I am, he wants to say, but he doesn’t want to remind Jungkook that he is dead as well. “I have more of a tolerance to the sun than younger vampires do. It will still burn me, but not as instantly or to the extent that it would to others, especially on cloudier days. I did have to deal with some very severe burns though, because most days were not so kind to me.

“I did find you though, at the bar. I took you to the hotel room, where I hoped you would stay for a while. Then I later found you in the alley, and now we are here.” Jungkook already knew it all, so Taehyung is unsure why the random mention came about.

“But… but why?”

“Why what, darling?” Taehyung asks. He takes Jungkook’s hand because he can tell he is getting worked up. He brushes his thumb back and forth over the delicate skin of his wrist. He hopes he is allowed.

“Why would you care? Why would you do anything for me? You didn’t even know me! Why are you even doing anything for me now?!”

“Hey, my darling, calm down for me,” Taehyung says. Jungkook is breathing short and shallow like he cannot catch his breath. He doesn’t need to breathe, and Taehyung knows that feeling, like he can never fully catch it. He holds onto the sides of Jungkook’s neck and pulls him in. He does not think about it. He rests their foreheads together and tries to give Jungkook every good thing he has. It is what he has always wanted. Every reassuring, gentle, grounding feeling he can find within him, he tries to pour into Jungkook. “My sweet boy, breathe for me. You can feel my breath against your lips; breathe in what I breathe out.”

“I–I–I haven’t brushed my teeth.”

Taehyung can’t help but laugh. “We don’t have to do that, silly boy. You will not have to do that anymore. You can breathe all over me, so take my breaths, okay?” He takes deep exhales. He keeps doing it until Jungkook can find it in himself to breathe them in. His boy cannot do it fully though, his inhales only half of what he gives him before he starts to hyperventilate again. Taehyung whimpers, because he has never had to comfort someone who is crying like this. He is not sure what to do.

He finds that his lips are against Jungkook’s cheek before he realizes that he has tilted his head up. He does not know why he does it; it seems an odd, out of place choice. He thinks it is because he would like to receive such comfort if he were so panicked instead.

Jungkook takes a sharp inhale, then he stops. No more worrisome breathing, no more angst in his chest. He stops breathing, until he lets it out in a swooping exhale when Taehyung’s lips leave his skin.

Taehyung nervously sits back. He wipes his thumbs along Jungkook’s cheeks to dry the tears there. “There we go,” he says quietly. “We do not have to breathe anymore, so if you find yourself hyperventilating, try to remind yourself of that. Sometimes it makes it scarier, like you will never be able to catch your breath because of it. But if you just think, ‘I can stop,’ sometimes it is as simple as that.”

Jungkook is refusing to look at him. He is instead fidgeting with the fabric of Taehyung’s pants. Taehyung thinks that is a better sign than if he were fidgeting with his own.

“I cared about how you were because I just did,” Taehyung says. “I wish I had a better answer for you, but I meant what I said before, that I just don’t know. It is not as shallow as me thinking you are beautiful, because there is more to it than that. It is what captivated me to begin with, but it was so, so much more than that, and I still do not know what it is. But because of it, whatever it is, I wanted to be sure that you were okay. I want the same now. It is not because I am your sire. I hope you know that I do not care for you simply because we have a bond that ties us together. I was doing as much as I was able to before you were stuck with me.” Jungkook chuckles, a sniffly sound as he wipes his nose. “Why did you ask? Does knowing that make you uncomfortable?”

The warm light shining through the stained glass bedside table lamp causes the drying tears on Jungkook’s cheeks to glisten, but it is only the memory of them. “Just… ‘s just confusing why someone would do that for me. Let alone you…”

Taehyung tilts his head to the side. “Me?”

“Y-Yeah, just, you know… You’re clearly rich, and old too, and–and, um, very… I mean, you’re a vampire, so you’re beautiful obviously, and–” Taehyung presses his lips together. He tries not to make a sound, but Jungkook is able to feel his amusement and whines. “What!”

Taehyung lets his smile free, something knowing and bashful. “We look the same as we did when we were turned, darling boy. As vampires, though, there is a glamor surrounding us that is meant to make us more appealing and attractive.” He pauses. “To humans, that is. Meaning to other vampires, we are not affected by that illusion, and we see each other how we naturally are.” Jungkook’s lips part, then such a deep, intense blush rises to his cheeks, spreading all the way to the tips of his ears. He doesn’t even sputter and try to make some kind of defense, just stays silent in embarrassment. Taehyung coos and laughs, feeling quite flattered. “I think you are beautiful too, my love,” he says as he pets his hair, trying to calm him. It is nothing Jungkook did not already know, because he has said it so many times by now. “It is why I first noticed you. My gorgeous boy. I am almost afraid to take you out in public, because I am afraid of how humans might see you if you are this beautiful as you are.”

“Taehyuuuuuuuung,” Jungkook whines. He finally hides away, but he does so by throwing himself in Taehyung’s lap, his head resting there as he lies down. Taehyung laughs as Jungkook wiggles around to get comfortable. Once he does, Taehyung pets his hair like he always does.

He thinks that maybe his long life, his tiresome years and his desperate years and his painful years that he has had to withstand, his years of numbness and thoughts of ending it all that obsessively filled his mind – he thinks that they were all worth it, because it led to him becoming somewhere his Jungkook can rest his head.

“How are you so comfortable with me already?” he asks him softly. Especially after everything he now knows. It feels as though Jungkook is constantly melting into him, wanting to be closer, unafraid of any of it.

“I dunno,” he says quietly. “I just am.”

“Are you often this way with others?”

Jungkook snorts. “No,” he says simply.

“I see.”

“I like it though. With you. Feels almost like I’ve known you for longer. Like that’s why I feel this way.”

“I feel that way too, my darling,” Taehyung says softly. He does not question it further, because he likes it. He does not want it to be jeopardized in some way by digging too deep, like something he finds might scare this lovely boy away. Instead of continuing with that philosophy, even more perilously he asks, “Does knowing I had been watching you make you doubt being with me?” He says it quietly, not wanting to disturb Jungkook out of the calmness that he is feeling from being pet by his sire.

Jungkook just shakes his head. “No, I think if anything it… it shows that you’re not nice to me just because you’re my sire. I think I would doubt that otherwise.”

Taehyung knows Jungkook feels his relief, because the corner of Jungkook’s lips tick up for a moment. “Good,” Taehyung says. “I do not care for you just because you are my fledgling. Although, I think you should be wary that a strange man had been stalking you.”

Jungkook huffs a laugh. “Yeah, probably,” he says. “Guess we’re both weird.”

Taehyung laughs, making Jungkook smile while his eyes remain closed from the petting. “I suppose we are,” he says. He supposes they can shelve the other topics on his mind for another time. Since it is topical at the moment though, he does continue with, “Would you like to feel my venom when I feed from you again?” He can barely believe it is a question he is asking. To be giving his venom and to be feeding from another vampire, it is unthinkable. “Is that something you would like to receive when we regularly do so?”

“You said it’s like being drunk,” Jungkook says, “so once you’re done, am I going to feel hungover?”

“I think it depends on how much you are given. I think if it is just enough to dull the sting of my fangs, or maybe a little more just to feel good as I drink from you, you will not feel anything negative once I am done. Unfortunately I am not familiar with the workings of this. I would ask the others, but because of the nature of feeding from another vampire, they have not felt venom either…”

“I… I think that maybe I don’t want any at first so I can see how it feels when you bite me, and if it hurts I’ll ask?”

“Good idea,” Taehyung says, his finger cascading through his boy’s silky hair. “Are you hungry right now? We did not get around to feeding when I asked earlier.”

“Yeah, I am…”

“How about we stay like this, and you can have my wrist again.” He is so comfortable, and he thinks Jungkook is too. The fledgling nods, eyes still closed as soaks up the affection like a neglected plant finally placed in the sun. Taehyung rejoices in giving it, because he has needed to give such comfort and care to another too. He did not know he even had these things within him, but now that he knows, he sees they were straining for freedom for so long.

Jungkook’s eyes open when Taehyung raises his free arm. His fledgling takes it in his hands. Taehyung tries not to let his eyelids flutter from the warmth of their skin together. “Do you want my venom too? I don’t really know how to do it or control it, but I can try…”

Taehyung’s hand in his hair trails down to his cheek, brushing his thumb back and forth beside his lips. “I do not need it,” he says. “My darling boy. We can work on controlling it if you’d like, but we do not need to do so for my sake.”

“Does it not hurt you when I bite you? Because you’re old or something?”

Taehyung tugs on Jungkook’s earlobe again, eliciting a whine and a giggle because he knows he is being bad. Taehyung cannot contain the strength of his smile. “No, it still stings a little bit,” he says. “I like the feeling that I am feeding my fledgling though. I do not wish to be numb from it.”

“If you say so,” Jungkook mumbles. Taehyung has already noticed it is something he tends to do – mumbling something sassy when he’s flustered. Taehyung loves to learn these little intricacies he is made up of.

Jungkook brings his sire’s wrist to his lips. He pauses just before he bites. “Does it hurt less if I do it slowly, or is it better to just rip the bandaid off?”

With a finger beneath his chin, Taehyung tilts it up to make Jungkook look up at him. “How did I get the sweetest little fledgling, hm?” he asks, not for the first time. “Most newborns are monsters to others, but I got such a little angel instead.”

“Taaae,” Jungkook whines. He turns his head and hides his face in Taehyung’s stomach, which is moving with his laughter.

Taehyung resumes petting his hair again. “I am not trying to fluster you, my love. I just hope you know how precious you are. To answer your question, I don’t think it makes much of a difference whether you do it slow or fast.”

Jungkook comes out of hiding. He moves Taehyung’s wrist in front of his mouth again. The breath somehow gets knocked out of Taehyung’s lungs when Jungkook looks up at him, his doe eyes so big and round. They are always that way, even more so when he’s asking a question, so those things combined with him looking up at him make Taehyung wonder if he really has somehow found an angel. “I’m going to do it fast this time, so pay attention to how it feels, okay? And next time I’ll do it slowly.”

“Okay, my little love,” Taehyung says softly.

Taehyung does not do a good job of observing how it feels though, because as soon as Jungkook’s fangs sink into him, all he feels is what he has felt each time Jungkook has fed from him. A feeling of completeness. Pride, satisfaction that he is feeding his little fledgling. It feels like he is completing his purpose on the most basic level – being the reason his fledgling lives; he created him, he made him, and he is feeding him too. Taehyung’s blood is beginning to run in his veins beside his own. He is caring for him.

But caring for him in only this way is not enough. Maybe it is for other newborns, but not for his little fledgling. He has already watched it prove itself many times within these few short days.

So he resumes petting Jungkook’s hair as he watches him feed, and says softly, “My love. You are feeding so slowly, being so polite. I did not even need to teach you; my little fledgling is such a sweetheart.” He watches his own blood rise to Jungkook’s cheeks, and the corner of Jungkook’s lips twitch as much as they can as he feeds.

“Now stop,” Taehyung says.

Jungkook’s eyes shoot open, and he slides his fangs out. He licks the puncture holes closed, then he quickly sits up. Wide-eyed, sitting across from Taehyung, he takes his wrist and inspects it. His eyes meet Taehyung’s own, looking worried. “Did I hurt you? Are you okay?”

Taehyung wants to melt into Jungkook’s lap like Jungkook did earlier. Instead he rests his hands on Jungkook’s cheeks and brushes his thumbs beneath his eyes. The skin is clear and smooth, no black, scary veins that come from needing to feed, or from being so young and letting one’s humanity waver. He looks just like the boy he found weeks ago, just with a tint of red in his eyes as if the color was taken from his nose and his cheeks after being in the cold outside for so long.

“My little love,” Taehyung says softly. “I’m okay, darling. I was just testing your self-control to see where you were at. My sweet boy. I am okay, and you didn’t hurt me. I am sorry for scaring you.” Jungkook slumps in relief with a deep sigh. “Are you still hungry?” He nods, looking sheepish, as if he were asking too much of him, as if Taehyung does not feel complete when Jungkook feeds from him. However his blood must taste to Jungkook, it cannot compare to how it feels to give it to him. He offers him his other wrist. “You can keep drinking, sweetheart. I will not disturb you this time.”

Jungkook takes his wrist in his hands. “I’ll bite you slowly now, okay?” he says. “And tell me which one felt better.” Taehyung nods, certain a look of extreme softness is on his face.

He watches Jungkook slowly and carefully sink his fangs into him. Jungkook’s eyes are locked on his own as he takes slow, calm drinks from his wrist. Taehyung shrugs. “I did not notice a difference, really,” he says.

He can feel the pleasant feeling of feeding coming from Jungkook. The way he is growing fuller, his hunger ebbing from him. It is not simply that though.

He can feel it and identify it in Jungkook, because it is the same for him. It is as if a hunger Taehyung did not know he had is being sated from feeding Jungkook too. He can feel Jungkook’s satisfaction, gratification, that rightness of feeding from his sire, a feeling that cannot be achieved from feeding from humans, never a true fulfillment that can be sated, because no matter how much they drink, they always want more, more, more.

But this is his sire who created him, who cares for him. His sire who is allowing him to feed from him, because Jungkook does seem to understand part of what the gesture itself means. Taehyung can feel his hunger becoming sated in a way that is never truly achieved for their kind, but it somehow is, and Taehyung thinks it is because of who he is feeding from. It brings to Taehyung a feeling so profound that it spills into Jungkook. This is Taehyung’s purpose, and he is fulfilling his purpose. He is keeping Jungkook not only alive, but healthy and satisfied.

Jungkook slides his fangs out of him. He licks his wounds closed like the polite boy he is. He looks down at the puncture holes and watches them mend back together. He takes his other wrist and checks it over, finding that it is almost as if he had not been bitten just moments ago.

Taehyung brushes his thumb against the corner of Jungkook’s lips, where some of his blood still clings. “Messy little fledgling,” he teases, already expecting the whine he gets. He rubs his thumb along one of Jungkook’s fangs to wipe his blood off. “Now show me how you can put your fangs away.”

He drops his hand, and he watches Jungkook’s tongue lick the blood from his fangs. He focuses on making his fangs slowly disappear. He does so with a slight look of discomfort, and Taehyung knows what that means. He is finally working on controlling them, which means his gums are going to be sore soon, as if he were teething.

He successfully puts them away though, and his bunny teeth are rounded out as if he were human again. “Good boy,” Taehyung says, brushing his knuckles down Jungkook’s cheek. He can feel the new sensation in his stomach, like a burst of butterflies that are not his own. “Such a better fledgling than I ever was.”

Before he can drop his hand, Jungkook catches his wrist. He does not inspect the way it is healing though; he instead presses his palm flat against his cheek. Taehyung’s heart does such a strange, wonderful thing as he watches Jungkook nuzzle it. There is such a feeling of rightness to it all. There is a quickening of his heartbeat, a heat to his cheeks, but those are secondary to the feeling of calm contentment. It feels as if this is exactly what is meant to be happening, as if he is fulfilling his duty by just being here.

“Do you like when we are together?” Taehyung asks quietly, almost a whisper. “Do you like it when I am near you?” He brushes his thumb back and forth beneath Jungkook’s eye, able to feel the softness of his eyelashes as his eyes stay closed. “When I am touching you?”

Jungkook nods. His eyes open, and he looks at him through his eyelashes. “Do you?” he asks quietly, like he is afraid of being the only one.

“I do,” Taehyung whispers.

“It feels…” Jungkook says. He searches for his words as he allows Taehyung’s hand to fall, but only so he can hold it in his own in his lap. He plays with his fingers – bending each of his knuckles, running his thumb across the length of his fingers absentmindedly. Little, easy touches, like Jungkook has craved touch and affection as long as Taehyung has. Somehow, though, even though he has leaned into it so easily, it does not feel as though it would have been accepted so easily coming from anyone. Like he has only yearned for touch itself, no matter whose it was. It does not feel so shallow as that. “It feels like… I dunno, kind of like when you’ve been outside in the cold all day – like it’s winter and your skin is turning red and you’re shivering – and then you finally step inside where it’s warm, and you can close the door behind you, and the fireplace is on. That–that moment of finally being home. L-Like, the day is over, and you did all that you have to do, and you’re tired, and you’re finally where you’ve been wanting to be. Even though I didn’t know I wanted to be here, b-but now that I am, it’s like… I dunno. It just feels like that warmth of being out of the cold, somewhere warm and safe. Somewhere that’s yours. Or–or like walking through a dark maze where it’s dark and cold and you’re alone and you don’t know where you’re supposed to go, but you’re just endlessly following it. And when it leads to the middle, or out the other side, and you get to where it was taking you, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, this is obviously where it was leading to. How didn’t I know that?’. I don’t–I don’t know. It’s just, yeah. It feels l-like–like, just, like a relief. Not because I’m inside somewhere warm, but… it’s just… Here.”

Taehyung is certain he must be dreaming.

He must have fallen asleep, or he must have done what he had been thinking about for so long, and this is the afterlife.

But this is an afterlife he would have never deserved, and he has not been able to dream in a long while.

“I am somewhere that is yours,” Taehyung says softly. “I am someone that is yours. I am bound to you, my love. I feel complete when you are with me. Please always know that whatever you are feeling, I am feeling it too.”

“B-But isn’t this a lot? Like–like I was just some homeless g-guy last week, and now I’m saying stuff like this, and that’s just–it’s not like me, and–”

Taehyung pulls Jungkook in, and he rests their foreheads together because it helped his fledgling last time. And because Taehyung just wants to be that close. “You need not get worked up with me, my darling boy,” Taehyung says softly. He tilts his chin up, and he presses his lips to Jungkook’s cheek just like before. He feels what Jungkook spoke of – that relief of warmth, like moving from the coldness of winter to the warmth of a hearth. Jungkook doesn’t understand how literal and real that is for him too – for both of them, in different ways. “All of your worries and thoughts, you can give them to me. This is not like me either, Jungkook-ah. I understand your fear, your apprehension. I feel them too. It is strange and new for both of us, but that does not mean it is bad. We are bound together, my love,” he does not think of the for now that taunts him, “of course it would seem like a lot. But that does not mean it is bad. I crave your affection and your closeness. It is where we are supposed to be, at least for now. You are here to lean on me when everything is so new for you, and I am here to care for you. It is where we are meant to be. I feel good with you too.”

He can tell Jungkook does not know what to say. Nor does Taehyung, because the words he is speaking do not properly relay what he is feeling, but he hopes Jungkook can feel it better than he can say. So he gives them a reprieve and says, “Now how about we spend some time outside, hm? We have been holed up in this stuffy room for a while. It might be good to stretch our limbs.”

“Outside?” Jungkook says, perking up.

Taehyung pets him like the excited puppy he resembles. “I should give you a tour of the manor as well, but the outside deserves a tour too.”

“Isn’t it cold outside though?” Jungkook asks. He curls into himself as if seeking out his own warmth, just a muscle memory at this point. Taehyung’s heart aches because so many of the things Jungkook has said, even the poetic and lovely ones, relay the trauma of being stuck outside, alone in the winter. It must be a part of him as much as it was for Taehyung, the coldness, the inability to accept it because it is never something one could grow used to.

“It is,” Taehyung says. Then he flicks under Jungkook’s chin. “But you are a vampire, my darling, so you will not feel it.”

Jungkook’s mouth drops open. “Really?” he asks, disbelieving.

“Really,” Taehyung nods. “Now let’s go. I’m sure the others here are curious about this little fledgling who lives among us now as well, although I would like to keep you tucked away just for myself.”

When they stand, Jungkook takes his hand. He does it so easily. Taehyung hates to think about how starved for touch he must have been. He feels so lucky that he is the one to give it to him.

Then Jungkook decides against it and wraps both of his arms around Taehyung’s arm instead, nuzzling his cheek against his shoulder. “You’re still my sire,” he says. “Even when we’re around people, you’re still my sire.”

Taehyung slides his arm from between Jungkook’s to wrap it around his shoulders, keeping him close as they walk to the door. He turns his head and nuzzles his nose into Jungkook’s hair. “Are you real, Jungkook-ah?” he asks. “I have done absolutely nothing to deserve an angel such as you. You cannot stray too far from me, lest the gods notice their mistake and try to take you back.”

He can feel how so very pleased Jungkook is, but his shy little boy says nothing.

Jungkook’s eyes sparkle in the candlelight of his living quarter’s hallway as he looks around in amazed curiosity. He has been through here before, but he ran to make his way to the kitchen and probably did not look around. Taehyung tries to see it from his perspective, as if he has not seen it every day for so many years.

His decor is a bit on the nose for an old vampire. It is not scary or cold, not reminiscent of a dark dungeon. Nor does the manor look like it has been plucked from the rococo era; it just reflects his simple, refined taste. Dark wood wainscotting on the bottom half of the walls, old paintings hanging above them. The occasional handmade side table displaying more art or curated books that could not fit in his library. Wax candles illuminating their way to join with the warm, dim lighting. It is comforting to him, a calming atmosphere to lead to his area of the home. The rest of the manor brightens and reflects the other lives that live there, because he did not want to force them to live somewhere that only suited his tastes. Here, though, is his.

As soon as they reach the bounds outside of Taehyung’s living quarters, he sees Jimin. He is standing there as if he were a bodyguard for that wing of the manor. Taehyung laughs as he pulls Jungkook closer in case he is still shy or nervous around others. “Are you guarding my area?” he asks. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long,” Jimin says. Taehyung can detect the lie.

“May we help you with something?”

“I’ve been waiting for you guys to come out,” Jimin whines. He even stomps his foot. Taehyung knows he and Jungkook are going to be quite good friends. “I want to hangoooooout.”

“Well, we are here,” Taehyung says. “I was going to give Jungkook-ah a tour of the manor and spend some time outside.”

Jimin’s eyebrows shoot up. “Outside?” he asks. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” He glances at Jungkook. “No offense.” Jungkook just shrugs.

“I would normally say no for a vampire as young as him, but I have somehow been blessed with the best fledgling that has been turned.” He sees Jungkook bite his lip, clearly trying not to whine around a stranger. Taehyung turns his head and nuzzles into his hair, and he kisses his temple. He did not even think about it until he watches Jimin’s eyes go wide. “Isn’t that right, Jungkookie?”

He giggles seeing Jungkook’s flushed cheeks. “I–I dunno…” he mumbles.

He gives Jungkook a break and turns back to Jimin. “He is very well-behaved and has quickly adjusted to all of this somehow, so I have faith that he will be perfectly okay with some freedom. If a human tries to wander toward the manor, I will be able to sense them before he can.” Jimin looks dubious. Taehyung would be too if he had not been with Jungkook this whole time and seen it himself. To Jungkook he says, “Now let’s go outside for some fresh air before I give you a tour.”

Jimin follows them through the manor. He is very obviously glancing at the two of them repeatedly and the spots where they are intertwined, because what they are like within is showing on the outside as well. Jungkook does not notice because of how absorbed he is in looking around him. By the time they reach the back door, they have acquired others. Yoongi stands beside Jimin, and Taehyung can sense Hoseok coming their way too.

Taehyung opens the back door into the cold autumn night, and Jungkook staggers a step back. Taehyung looks at him sympathetically. “A lot of smells, huh?” he says. Jungkook’s nose scrunches as he nods. “You will get used to it. I have found that it does well to see it as a blessing until you learn how to control what you notice. Humans cannot smell the autumn leaves, the expanse of nature, the clouds in the sky like we can; they do not know what the sky smells like, the rain clouds that are drifting by. But you can, and it is lovely, is it not?” As he spoke Jungkook’s nose settled down, and he began taking little sniffs like a puppy. He still looks unsure, but he lets Taehyung lead him outside. And as soon as they step onto the back porch, the rest of their household appears.

“Hi!” Hoseok says as he steps in front of Jungkook. He does not keep up the illusion of politeness and wait to be introduced first like the others have been. “I’m Hoseok.”

“H-Hi. I’m Jungkook.” Taehyung can feel the collective coo that is being held back when Jungkook bows.

“Hoseok is who I told you about, who is partnered with Jimin and Yoongi. And this is Seokjin, who is Namjoon’s partner.” They turn to Seokjin, who Jungkook bows to as well. With their guests no longer in the manor, Seokjin no longer tries to appear professional and looks how he always does: pajamas, bathrobe, and fluffy hair. It makes Taehyung remember the guests they had here and what happened with them. If Jungkook remembers that it happened, he does not show it. He doubts that he does when there is so much else to focus on. So many good things to focus on.

“And now you have met everyone,” he says. “And if you ever need any help, they will be more than happy to assist. Now how about we discover your new abilities, hm? Jimin is the most energetic one of the bunch, and I think he would really like to race you.” Jimin has been nodding vehemently the whole time he spoke. Even though Jungkook is shy, Taehyung can tell he has already warmed up to Jimin after only a few meetings. It is hard not to when Jimin is the warmest person he knows.

“Please do not go beyond the bounds of the property though, okay?” Taehyung says. Jungkook nods. He looks less shy now and more excited to see what he really can do.

Jungkook lets Jimin pull him off the back porch. His heart bursts watching his best friend and his fledgling already develop a semblance of familiarity. They are both playful, silly little creatures, so of course they would recognize it in one another.

Taehyung looks out into the expanse of the manor’s grounds. It is so vast, but somehow does not feel empty. The gardens expand so far, and they do not abruptly end as if the rest of the property is unused, dead space; rather they trickle off until it leads to the field for them to run in. It stretches out far with forest hugging them in from every side. The sky is clear tonight, allowing the moon and the stars to shine their light down onto them, even though the warm light of the manor spills over into the grounds, and they can see just fine without it anyway. Taehyung leans against the banister of their back porch and watches his best friend and his fledgling. Such a strange turn of his life.

Jungkook and Jimin line up beside each other. Jimin says, “We’ll run on three, ok–” but Jungkook has already disappeared in a blur. “Hey! Cheater!” Jimin yells after him, disappearing from view as well.

Taehyung laughs with the rest of them. He cannot remember when he was last a member of their chorus, if ever. He is unable to even keep an eye on Jungkook because of how fast he is. He can hear traces of his laughter that the wind is not carrying away though, and he can feel his childlike joy in his chest.

He stops attempting to keep track of him, because he trusts that Jungkook will listen to him and stay within the manor’s grounds. He trusts Jimin to keep him safe as well. He thinks that is the biggest show of trust he has in his best friend, to keep something so dear to him safe. He knows he is even safer now too, because Hoseok and Seokjin join the two others. They sprint off the porch to join the game of tag they seem to have started.

Taehyung sits on the back porch steps, content to just enjoy the nice autumn night. The back porch was a demand from Jimin, even though it does not exactly fit the Victorian style of the manor. Painted black, though, and adorned with fixtures that hold flickering candles, it manages to fit in nicely. It is a nice place to sit too.

Namjoon joins him. Yoongi sits beside him as well, and they all look out into the field, trying to keep track of their loved ones as they run so fast.

“Jungkook is much farther along than any fledgling I’ve ever met before,” Yoongi says. Namjoon nods in agreement – which means a lot, since aiding newborns through their difficult transformations is what he does.

“I believe it is partially because you allow him to feed from you,” Namjoon says. Even the way he says it sounds reluctant, like it is so personal and private of a thing that it is difficult to simply talk about. “He will feel less of a pull to humans, since his only source has been from you. I am unsure though, because even if it were an exchange that sires and fledglings have made before, I don’t think any young vampires have been anywhere near ready enough to go out into the world just days after being turned; I’m not even sure if I have read any before the year mark.”

Taehyung feels a burst of pride. Even if Jungkook were difficult and struggling and still thrashing and attacking in his bedroom, he would still feel pride that he is his sire. “I suppose I just got a special one.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Namjoon says. He sounds reluctant to accept that as the answer though, a usual pensive quality to his tone.

Suddenly, there is a little fledgling in front of him. His hair is windswept and a huge smile is on his face. “I’m so fast!” he says.

Jimin and Seokjin appear beside him, somehow looking breathless. “He’s really fast,” Jimin says while Seokjin nods. The both of them are clearly tired out from chasing his energetic little fledgling around.

“I could tell,” Taehyung says to him. He reaches out and takes Jungkook’s hands. He kisses the top of each of them. Everybody’s glances at one another do not go unmissed, nor does the furrow between Namjoon’s eyebrows. Taehyung cannot inquire about his quiet mood, because he is being pulled to his feet by a strong little fledgling. He allows him to pull him away. “Where are you taking me?”

“Wanna see how strong I am,” Jungkook says, pulling him deeper into the vast field.

“And how will I be a part of that? Are you going to throw me into the forest?”

“Nooo,” Jungkook laughs. “Wanna arm wrestle. Or,” his eyes sparkle with the new idea, “wrestle wrestle.”

Taehyung laughs. The thought of allowing anybody to do something of the sort with him would be hilarious, and anyone would have to be mad to suggest such a thing. But Taehyung says, “Okay, little fledgling,” and indulges him. Everyone else knows how bold of a request it is too, because he can hear Yoongi mutter from across the field, “The way he is with Jungkook…” with sounds of disbelieving agreement around him. Taehyung continues, “But you should be aware of how strong I am, darling. I have been alive for quite some time.”

“Exactly,” Jungkook says. Beaming, “You’re old. I’m young.” More disbelieving sounds, and more when Taehyung just laughs at the even bolder remarks.

“We’ll see about that,” Taehyung says. With his hands casually joined behind his back, he begins to circle Jungkook when the fledgling starts to first. He watches Jungkook look for weak spots on him, eyes darting around his body. Taehyung lets him, just waiting for his reckless fledgling to make the first move.

And when he does, Taehyung finds himself being pushed several yards back as Jungkook barrels into him with his arms around his torso. His heels tear through the grass and show the dirt beneath it with two deep, long lines.

Just as easily as Jungkook was able to gain control, Jungkook finds himself flipped over and gazing up at the star-filled sky. His body meets the earth with an oof, even though Taehyung held him gently to slow him before his back hit the ground. Taehyung rests a hand on his chest to keep him down as he smirks. “You underestimate me, my love.”

Taehyung laughs when Jimin yells, “Get him, Jungkook!” across the field. It brings out a mischievous smile from Jungkook. Taehyung watches him grow determined like the competitive boy he’s starting to learn he is.

Taehyung feels a leg sweep against his ankles to kick them out from beneath him. The ground threatens to disappear from under him, and in his haste to find his footing again, the hand pressing against Jungkook’s chest can no longer balance him, because Jungkook disappears. Before he can fall though, Jungkook appears behind him in a flash. He catches him to keep him upright, his arms around his waist in a back hug. “I think you are underestimating me, sire,” Jungkook says, voice right beside his ear before the warmth of him is gone.

Jungkook tries to run, but Taehyung catches up to him just a millisecond later. He intends to crash into him and send him tumbling, but Jungkook does that himself to evade his reach and drops into a somersault to get away. He begins running in the opposite direction, but as soon as Taehyung turns to chase after him, Jungkook is running towards him and crashing into him again. He intends to send him on his back to pin him down and declare himself the winner. A kick to the back of his knees causes him to collapse before Taehyung can be pinned, and he does not kindly catch him like Jungkook did. Taehyung jumps to his feet, and Jungkook finds himself kneeling before him. Before Taehyung can take the lead or Jungkook can retaliate, Taehyung rests his hands on Jungkook’s cheeks. He tilts his head up so he is looking up at him. Taehyung presses a tender kiss between Jungkook’s eyebrows. “My darling boy,” he murmurs to him before he runs out of his reach. He laughs as he watches Jungkook take several moments to recover. But once Jungkook does, he moves as quickly as Taehyung has ever seen another vampire move. And this time, caught unaware and marvelling at his speed, Taehyung finally finds himself on his back with Jungkook hovering over him.

He will not go down without a fight though. He yanks Jungkook down onto him and smoothly rolls him over.

His fledgling is not going down without a fight either though. Jungkook rolls them over so he is on top again as if it required no effort at all. It is the same for Taehyung though, and it sends them rolling again. Jungkook somehow scrambles out from beneath him, and he is on top of Taehyung. He pins him down from behind with the front of Taehyung’s body against the grass. Taehyung reaches behind himself and grabs a hold of Jungkook’s arm. His strength is enough to pull him off with just that simple hold – something Jungkook clearly was not expecting, based on the surprised yelp he lets out when he finds himself yanked from on top of his sire. Jungkook recovers quickly though, because he is young and determined. He tackles Taehyung down again so he is on his back, and the both of them gleefully laugh as they roll around in a tussle, almost laughing so hard that it is difficult to keep up the fight.

Taehyung finally gets on top of him though, in the perfect position to pin all of his limbs down. He sits back on his thighs, and a firm hold on his biceps keeps them pressed to the ground. Jungkook thrashes and tries to throw him off, putting in a good fight. He sees that he has finally been truly bested though, and he stops fighting. He concedes his loss. Taehyung smiles down at him, feeling a happiness so pure it feels as though it cannot be his own. Jungkook matches it as he looks up at him. His eyes look like the stars in the sky having fallen down into them.

“I told you that you underestimate me,” Taehyung says. He takes a hand from Jungkook’s bicep to rest it on his cheek. “My headstrong little fledgling.” His voice is heart-achingly soft.

“I’ll beat you one day,” Jungkook says like the willful boy he is.

“We will see about that.” He gets off of Jungkook, but just to roll over and lie on the grass beside him as they come down from the shared adrenaline of their fight. He can hear his friends talking across the field, but he tunes their voices out so all he can hear are the sounds of the forest and the animals that have not left or begun their naps for the impending winter.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many stars before,” Jungkook says quietly. “You can’t see them in the city. I think you probably could in my hometown, because there weren’t very many buildings or houses, but I don’t think I ever looked up to see them.”

Taehyung turns his head to look at him. Jungkook's eyes are trained on the sky, irises dark and twinkling with stars. The moonlight outlines his features. The curve of his nose, the pout of his lips. The beauty mark beneath them. “Pretty, isn’t it?” he says quietly.

“Yeah,” Jungkook says, eyes roaming around the stars he is finally meeting even though they have watched over him his whole life.

They lay like that together. They watch the stars or sneak in peaks of each other when they think they can get away with it. They soon start to hear Yoongi and Hoseok walking over, who join them in the grass. They sit up and face them, making a square with a friend at each point of it. They talk together as the night continues on, the moon watching over the creatures of the night, allowing them this moment with its gentle light.

It is as if Jungkook has always been here.

It only takes an hour for his shyness to slip away, and it feels as if there has been an empty spot in their family. It feels like there was something to be filled, the gap in it growing darker and larger as time went on, a shape they did not know until Jungkook filled it so perfectly, tucking himself into each corner until it was there no more. Hoseok and Yoongi tell Jungkook about themselves, and Jungkook offers stories about himself as easily. There is an underlying sadness to some of them, details he doesn’t share that he did with Taehyung, but Taehyung thinks that maybe… maybe he sounds happy. It feels as though he is telling a faraway story, seeing it all in a different light because he is living a new life where he is so cherished.

Taehyung looks across the way, back at the manor. He sees that the others have gone in, except for Jimin. Jimin sits on the porch steps, absentmindedly petting an orange cat beside him as he looks out in the forest.

Taehyung stands and attempts to brush off the dirt and many blades of grass that have clung to him during the night’s scuffle. Jungkook looks up at him in question. Taehyung brushes his fingers through Jungkook’s wind-swept hair, smiling as he pulls a blade of grass from the strands. “I think we are in need of a shower later,” he says. “I am going to go talk to Jimin. Do you think you are okay here?”

Jungkook nods. “I’ll be okay.”

“Okay,” Taehyung says softly. He cups Jungkook’s cheek and brushes his thumb beneath his eyes. “I will be back soon. My darling boy.” He looks at Yoongi and Hoseok, who give each other a glance before looking back at him. “Please do not let him hurt himself,” he says to them. Jungkook grumbles, and the other two nod. Taehyung ruffles Jungkook’s hair before he goes, receiving another grumble as he walks away.

Taehyung crosses the field. He feels an uncomfortable pull in his chest when he walks away from his fledgling, but it is nothing too painful. He sits beside Jimin, in the spot of the cat that has now curled up in his friend’s lap. “Hello,” he says.

Jimin looks at him softly. “Hi,” he says.

Taehyung swallows.

He tries to find his words, but they all seem to evade him, creating a distance because he is not worthy of the company because he has hurt Jimin.

“Jimin-ah, I am… I am sorry. I–”

“No, Tae,” Jimin says. He turns to him, wide-eyed as he takes his hand. “No. I–I made what you said about me. I made what you were feeling about me, when it should have been about you. I should have–have talked to you about it, tried to see how I could help, just been someone you could lean on, but instead I made it about me and shut you out because I was hurt.”

“You had every reason to be hurt though,” Taehyung says, squeezing Jimin’s hand as a hole opens in his chest. It is his own though, too much of his own for Jungkook to feel. “If you said something like that, I would have felt the same. I should have been more careful with my words. I should have explained myself better so it did not sound so careless.”

“I didn’t let you,” Jimin says.

“And I… I should not have been keeping all of this from you. You knew something was going on, and I knew it was hurting you that I was not confiding in you. About how I had been feeling, and now about this too. It hurts me to know that you probably felt like you were on the outside, like there was distance between us, that I was keeping myself from you. That I did not trust you enough to know everything that had been going on. I do not even know why I could not tell you, but it had nothing to do with you; it was only me.”

Jimin smiles at him softly. Jimin has always treated him with more softness than he has ever been deserving of. It is soft when he speaks too, “Seeing you with him, I understand why you did.” Taehyung doesn’t know how, because even he does not understand why. “I’ve known you for a long time, and I have never seen you this way. I’ve never seen you talk to someone the way you talk to him. I’ve never seen you be so open with your feelings and the things you say. I’ve never even seen you play like you did with him. You’ve smiled more tonight than I think you have in the entire time I’ve known you – at least not this kind of smile, or the way you were laughing. T-Tae, I’m–”

“Why are you crying?!” Taehyung laughs as he wipes the tears from his own cheeks.

“B-Because I love you, you idiot!” Jimin says, laughing through his sniffles as he brushes the tears from his cheeks too. “I-I’m so h-happy that you’re happy. I-I’ve never seen w-what you look like when you’re truly happy before, and I just–I’m s-so happy you’re happy now. I-I want this for you, and I want you to be here always. I-I don’t want e-eternity to be so hard for you, I don’t want you to c-cut it short. I want you to be happy.”

“I don’t want you to think I was unable to find that in you,” Taehyung says, his voice cracking. The cat on Jimin’s lap jumps off with a disgruntled noise, annoyed with the display of emotions. “I–I think that i-if you’d taken any longer to sh-show up here, you would not have met me at all.” It makes Jimin whimper, and it makes more tears glide down Taehyung’s cheeks. “You gave me a reason to go on, when all I wanted was for it all to end. Y-You gave my life purpose; you brought light and laughter and love into my life. I would have lived a hundred more years if I knew my best friend was going to come along. You were always enough.” He pulls Jimin into his arms as they cry.

“I–I know that I was enough,” Jimin says. “I’m not taking it personally… I know what it’s like. Not as much as you, but I know w-what my life felt like before I got here. Before I came here, and then when I fell in love with Hoseok and Yoongi. It didn’t mean that my life here, with our friends, with you, meant n-nothing and they changed everything. I know how it felt.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung nods as he sniffles, his tears finally stopping as Jimin wipes his face a final time. “It’s just–wait, fell in love?”

Jimin blinks at him and furrows his eyebrows. “W-Well, yeah, Yoongi and Hoseok and I have been in love for a long time.”

Taehyung rolls his eyes. “I am aware. But that’s not–we’re not–I am his sire. He is my fledgling. That’s not–”

He cuts himself off because of the absolutely unamused look on Jimin’s face as he stares at him. “Tae, you’re a million years old. You’re not an idiot.”

He laughs. “What is this new thing? Everybody calling me so old lately…” He shakes his head, but he doesn’t really mind when it makes the other person laugh every time. “Jungkook and I have only just met, really.” He knows for certain that he is not in love with Jungkook, and he is not telling himself that in denial. He does hold an undoubtable affection for him though.

“I don’t know the full story with you guys, but based on how you were when you brought him here covered in blood – and the fact that you even turned him at all? I know that wasn’t the first time you ever saw him.”

He looks across the field to make sure Jungkook is still okay, and he laughs to himself when he sees him and Hoseok wrestling now. Hopefully it means that he is too occupied to tune into their conversation, because Taehyung sighs and begins to tell him the full story.

– ☾ –

“And Jungkook is somehow not afraid that a weird old guy was stalking him?” Jimin asks.

“Forty-two is not even very old!” he says as Jimin giggles, intentionally teasing him. “I was just as uncertain and disbelieving as you. But like I said, he was kind of feeling how I was too, in his own way. Anything could have happened to him, and he would be uncaring…”

“Well, I’m glad that you are what happened to him…”

Taehyung smiles to himself. He does not believe he is deserving of good things, especially something so special. He has done too many bad things in his life to be worthy of experiencing the wonder of it. But even so, he is glad that he is what happened to Jungkook too, because all he wants to do is care for him. It is what he wanted before he even knew him, so he feels as if he has been given the most precious gift of all to be his sire.

And that precious, otherworldly gift is walking across the field. His love beside Jimins’, even if they are different. Hoseok gives Jimin a peck on the cheek just as Yoongi does the same on the other side, making him giggle as Hoseok and Yoongi kiss each other’s lips above him. Taehyung takes Jungkook’s hand and pulls him closer so he’s sitting beside him, his thumb running over his knuckles. The tug in his chest loosens, because the other half of the invisible string is right here. “Have fun?”

Jungkook nods, beaming as Hoseok says, “You’ve got your work cut out for you. Not sure how you’re going to handle that much longer with how o–”

“If one more person calls me old, they are going to be thrown out of the manor,” Taehyung says. It is dangerously close to a whine as everybody laughs. Maybe Jungkook is rubbing off on him a little bit.

Hoseok announces that he needs a shower, so he and his mates stand. Before they go in, Jimin hugs Taehyung from behind and tells him he loves him. Taehyung finally feels settled. He and Jimin are okay, and the boy whose safety has plagued his mind is right here. Everything is okay.

The three others go inside, then it leaves only Taehyung and Jungkook, sire and fledgling. Taehyung reaches out and cups Jungkook’s cheek to brush a dusting of dirt from his nose. “How are you, my darling boy?” he asks.

“Good,” he says. The twinkle in his eyes and the strength of his smile are enough to believe him, even if Taehyung couldn’t feel his happiness in his chest. He is nothing like the dejected, cold boy he once saw. “How are you?”

“If my little fledgling is happy, then I am happy too. The sun will begin to rise soon, so why don’t we go inside and I can give you a tour, then you can shower and get in bed.”

Jungkook yawns as if he hadn’t realized he was getting sleepy. It is silly to see another vampire capable of being sleepy still. Jungkook nods, and they venture inside. The fledgling sneakily lets one of the cats in with them, as if Taehyung isn’t always aware of every single thing around him. He allows him to, because he thinks that would be the case with anything.

“This is the sunroom,” Taehyung says. It is the room they passed through to get outside, but they walked through the manor earlier without introductions to anywhere. “It is a bit ironic to have in a manor where seven vampires live, so we have taken to calling it the moon room instead, because it is a nice place to stargaze if you do not feel like going outside.” The room is made of windows, like a greenhouse. There is a velvet couch, a green so dark that it almost looks black, except it is sprinkled with cat fur because it is where the cats who sneak in like to curl up and nap. There is a coffee table in front of it with various coffee table books, a couple of reading chairs, and a telescope pointed through the window. It is one of Taehyung’s favorite rooms of the manor; it is always dark and peaceful.

Jungkook wanders through the room, looking at each and every part of it. He feels the softness of the couch and peeks through the telescope with an “ooooh” at whatever Yoongi left it pointed at hoping others might take a peek. They eventually exit the darkness of the moon room and enter the warmth of the hallway. The halls are almost the size of many of the rooms themselves with how wide they are, maybe wide enough for all seven of the household members to walk through side by side if they walked arm to arm. They’re decorated nicely with art and photos and tables with candles so it does not feel like an impersonal space meant only to get from room to room or different wings of the house.

“Right across from us here is the kitchen,” Taehyung says, “which you have been in. There is usually a supply of blood in the fridge, and sometimes human food as well if Yoongi or Seokjin are cooking or baking.”

“Can we eat human food?” Jungkook asks, perking up. He seems to have forgotten about that kind of food since he only craves this new kind.

“We can, technically,” Taehyung says. “Not to the extent that humans normally eat, and you will find that all of it is unappetizing and does not taste the same anymore. You will also most likely not feel very good after.” He feels sad when Jungkook pouts, because he remembers that feeling, even if it was long ago – the feeling of not finding joy in the endless possibilities of human food anymore. He isn’t sure how to comfort him without it sounding empty or like a lie, so he just lets him feel his feelings as they pass the kitchen.

“Why do they cook and bake then?”

“Well, for a while now, Yoongi has been trying to make some kind of food with blood in it that we could eat and enjoy. And Seokjin just likes it as a hobby. He tends to do it when he knows any of are going to the city so it can be passed out to those in need and not have it go to waste.” That used to be Jungkook, Taehyung remembers. He wonders if any of the others had seen Jungkook before. The jealousy he feels is silly, he tells himself. It is a scenario he has made up, and it would mean that Jungkook was given a meal.

The rest of the hall is short in the direction they are following from the kitchen, and it leads to an arched doorway that welcomes them into a cozy space with tall domed ceilings. The big fireplace still glows with fading embers, because some of the others must have been spending time in here before joining them outside. A blanket is bundled up in the corner of the big L-shaped couch, and Namjoon’s book sits face-down to keep his place on the side table next to his usual chair. There is an empty mug on the coffee table with a few drops of red liquid at the bottom, and there is a single slipper in the middle of the room with its pair nowhere to be found.

The sight of it all could bring tears to Taehyung’s eyes.

“This is the main living space that everybody spends time in,” he says. “There are other living rooms and sitting rooms you will find, but this is the favorite. If you are looking for anybody, this is where I would check first.”

Jungkook does the same wander through that he did in the moon room. He holds his hands out to feel lingering warmth of the memory of the fire. He inspects some of the picture frames resting on the bookshelves. He sticks his hand in their basket of blankets to feel the different fuzzy ones. He returns back to him, ready to continue their tour. Taehyung realizes, briefly, that, like all the others in the mess of their living room, it will begin to show proof that Jungkook is here too.

Walking in the opposite direction in the same hallway they came through, Taehyung points out a few other formal living spaces where they bring guests. He tells him about which parts of the manor are for guests, and which parts are not – even though the contrast is obvious enough to be able to infer which is which. They pass the manor’s communal library, a soaring fairy tail-like space that is more orderly than his and Namjoon’s private libraries, and Jungkook does his same walk-through like he does in every room that is introduced to him. He is quiet the whole time, like a polite audience member for his tour guide.

They stop at Namjoon’s office because Taehyung can see that the lamp light is on, the illumination spilling out into the hallway. They peek their heads in to say goodnight, but they both freeze awkwardly when Namjoon and Seokjin abruptly stop talking in a very unsubtle manner. They freeze in the same way.

“Um… hello…” Taehyung says, but breaking the prolonged silence does not break the tense awkwardness. “I am giving Jungkook a tour of the manor.” Namjoon nods in acknowledgment. Seokjin just looks at the two of them, then down to where their hands are joined. Taehyung does not remember when that happened, or who reached for the other. “Well, goodnight then.”

“Goodnight,” Namjoon nods, with a faint, “Night,” from Seokjin.

“That was weird…” Taehyung mutters to Jungkook as they walk away. As they walk away, he can overhear snippets of their resumed conversation. Namjoon whispering, “I don’t know if that’s it though! I need to do more resear–” Followed by Seokjin’s, “We have eyes, Joon, that’s enough to tell!” in that same frantic whisper.

Taehyung does not know what that is about, but they have all vowed to not meddle or eavesdrop on others, since all of them have quite good senses and can pick up on any conversation in the manor if they tried hard enough. It is not hard to distract himself from it because of the way Jungkook freezes with full moon eyes when they enter the next room.

“This is the game room,” Taehyung says. He has never found much use or interest in it, but he is certainly the minority in that. Even more so because of the look of pure awe on Jungkook’s face.

A big television is against the far wall, and the TV console beneath it is lined with the latest versions of the most popular gaming systems. Everybody’s favorite games are on the shelves with them, but that is not all of them. It is as if Jungkook’s eyes truly sparkle when he opens one of the cabinets on the opposite wall and sees it stacked with games like books on a bookshelf. He opens the cabinet doors beside it and sees more of the same. On the opposite wall, the shelves show older versions of different gaming systems, and a smaller nook-type room off the main one has a few PC setups on a cluster of desks with comfortable gaming chairs.

“Do you have every gaming console ever here?” Jungkook asks as he keeps discovering more things.

He meant it as a disbelieving hyperbole, but Taehyung says, “Yes.”

Jungkook’s mouth drops open. Taehyung feels his excitement rise even more when Taehyung presses a button and illuminates the LED strip lights that are threaded around the room where the wall meets the ceiling. They are in a gradient around the space, pink fading to purple fading to blue.

“I am assuming that you enjoy video games then?” Taehyung asks. He takes a seat on the couch as he lets Jungkook discover more within the room.

Jungkook nods. “Well, I never had anything of my own, but when I went to friends’ houses sometimes, I got to play there.”

Taehyung hums. “Well, now you can take your pick of anything. And if there are any games you enjoy or would like to play, please let me know, and we will get it, although we keep our game library pretty up to date.”

“What’s your favorite game?” Jungkook says, circling back around to Taehyung.

“I don’t–”

“Taehyungie has never played a video game before,” Jimin says, miraculously appearing and joining their conversation, because some of them do better at not eavesdropping than others. Jimin, now dressed in pajamas with freshly-washed pink hair, plops down on the couch beside his best friend while Jungkook looks at him incredulously.

“What?” he says. Taehyung sheepishly shrugs. “Never?” Taehyung shakes his head. “Tae–” something fluttering in Taehyung at the new nickname, “you were alive for the invention of video games. How have you never played any?”

It seems to be the new trend to talk about how old Taehyung is, but he doesn’t mind; he finds it amusing as long as the others don’t find it creepy or unsettling. He shrugs again. “I’ve been around for the arrival and departure of many, many trends, along with new technology that becomes outdated and replaced – all of it on a constant cycle that I did not bother keeping up with it anymore. I’ve got the things I like, and I don’t bother with the rest when it will be gone again in the next twenty years.”

“Tae,” he says again. His bafflement makes Taehyung smile. “Video games have been around for a long time.”

“I am aware,” Taehyung says. “As you said, I was around when they were invented.”

“Do you even–do you even know what they are? Like do you know which consoles are which, or the classic video games, or the characters everyone knows?”

Taehyung looks at the unattractive boxes of plastic on the long TV console, each of them looking much like the next. He studies them, mostly looking to see if their names are displayed somewhere. He shakes his head, then he taps his chin as he recalls something. “There was… in a game Hoseok, I believe, was playing. It was–I just saw a glimpse of it in passing–but I believe it was a little leaf on the screen. It popped up and did a little giggle, and I thought it was charming.”

“Out of all of the video game characters in the world, and the ones that everyone knows, that’s what you remember?!” Jungkook shouts, disbelieving. “A korok?”

“I do not know the name of it, but if that is what it was, then I found him amusing. Is he the main character?”

“Oh my god,” Jungkook mutters as he sits on the floor, shaking his head.

“The korok is from The Legend of Zelda,” Jimin kindly informs him, “and you probably saw it when Hoseok was obsessed with playing Breath of the Wild. The koroks would pop up and go, ‘Yahaha!’ right?”

“Yes!” Taehyung says excitedly. “Korok,” he says, the word sitting strangely in his mouth.

“He’s not the main character,” Jimin lets him know. “They are hidden throughout the game for you to find.”

“I see,” Taehyung says, his eyebrows furrowed as he listens attentively. “Well, I enjoyed that gentleman very much. He looked like a little leaf. I hope Hoseok was able to find them all.”

“I’ve always wanted to play Breath of the Wild,” Jungkook says wistfully. “I used to see ads for it.”

“Well, you can play now,” Taehyung says resolutely. “Will we need to buy a new one since Hoseok used the one we had?”

Jungkook groans with his face in his hands as Jimin laughs. “Tae, you’re so–I can’t,” Jungkook says, shaking his head as Jimin continues to laugh at him, even though he isn’t sure what is so funny; it was a genuine question so he would know if he should go out and get another one while Jungkook sleeps. Jungkook rests his forearms on Taehyung’s knees from his spot on the floor and looks up at him. “Will you play a video game with me, sire?”

Taehyung pets Jungkook's hair. “Of course I will, my darling,” he says softly. Jungkook smiles up at him, but it’s cut short when Jimin squawks.

“Are you serious?!” he yells. “I’ve tried to get you to play something with me since we met, and you’ve always said no! He asks once and you–I cannot believe this. I’m telling Hoseok.” And with that, Jimin leaves the room, his petulant amusement following after him.

Taehyung looks down at Jungkook and shrugs, petting him once more before he says, “Let’s continue the tour, because I can tell my little fledgling is getting very sleepy.”

He guides Jungkook through the rest of the manor. He shows him the different areas that lead to their housemates’ wings of the house, a few other living spaces or hidden rooms sneakily built in the manor’s old architecture, before arriving at his own wing of their home. As they enter the familiar area, they pass one of the guest bedrooms that has always gone untouched, since it is in Taehyung’s living quarters. He has always intended to make it a different kind of room because he never planned on hosting anybody in his private area of the house, but he just never got around to it. Now, he wonders… Should that be Jungkook’s room? Jungkook has stayed in his personal room, which has been necessary through the process of his reawakening. Now, Jungkook is rather well-adjusted. There are still some things they will have to go through – seeing what he is like outside of the manor’s grounds, for one – but as it stands, he is doing quite well, and Taehyung doesn’t think he needs such close supervision. Now that he is lucid and normal, he does not want to suffocate him, and he’d like to give Jungkook his own space, a place of his own, somewhere he can be alone or stretch out who he is, and have a space that is his.

“What about upstairs?” Jungkook asks, cutting through his musings.

“It is not in use,” Taehyung says. He barely recognizes his tone of voice, and he feels a drop of a strange feeling in Jungkook hearing it too. He hopes he does not ask why, because Taehyung does not want to answer, because he does not have one.

Something must tell Jungkook not to ask, because he just says, slightly nervously, “Okay.”

Taehyung’s voice softens, easily stretching out from the tenseness only a moment ago. “I will prepare a shower for you,” he says. “If you would like, you may look through my closet to find something suitable to sleep in. We should get some clothes for you that are your own, so they will be more comfortable for you, but for now, what is mine is my little fledgling’s too.” He flicks beneath Jungkook’s chin and leaves him at his closet while he goes to the shower.

He turns it on to a nice temperature, then he adjusts the lighting in the bathroom so it’s warm and dim. He puts out a towel for him just as Jungkook walks in with a small stack of clothes that he sets on the counter. “Do we have to shower?” he asks.

Taehyung tries to think of how to explain the answer to his question. He realizes that nobody explained any of this to him; he just had to learn everything himself. He doesn’t want Jungkook to feel as alone and confused as he was, because he is not alone. “We… hm, how do I put it. As a human, your hair will get greasy, and your skin might get oily, and you might sweat, and you will need to clean yourself because those things happen. We do not produce oil or sweat or things of that nature. We do, however, still exist in the world, and some of us are energetic little fledglings that like to run around and wrestle, and some of us are sires who have to wrangle their little fledglings. And we become dirty from those things.” He still sees little smudges of dirt on Jungkook, and he’s sure they are reflected on him too. As is the smile Jungkook has on his face. “So technically we would not need to shower if we’d been laying in bed for days,” he continues, “because our bodies do not require hygienic maintenance naturally. But we do if we experience the world, or if we wake up with messy hair, or if we would just like the warmth of a shower.”

Jungkook nods in understanding. “Does our hair still grow?” he asks.

“It does.” Jungkood nods again, pensive. “I am sure you will come up with many questions while you are in the shower, so try to remember them and I will answer them when you are done.” He flicks beneath Jungkook’s chin again. “I will be just across the hall to shower as well.”

“‘kay…” Jungkook says. He sounds as if he is reluctant to part. Taehyung feels some of it as well, but eventually they will have to work on stretching their bond, and taking separate showers is a necessity rather than an experiment.

“I will meet you back in bed,” Taehyung says softly. Jungkook nods, so Taehyung leaves him and heads to his own shower.

Once Taehyung steps beneath the falling water in the bathroom across the hall, he realizes this is his first shower since he became Jungkook’s sire. Which means this is his first shower since he miraculously became warm. He can feel the sensation of warm rain on his skin without the drops turning a few degrees from freezing once they touch him. He leans against the shower wall so he does not fall to his knees. He closes his eyes. He feels the slide of the hot water, the hug of the warm shower steam. Neither things turn cold. The tears that slide down his cheeks don’t either. He recalls the press of his and Jungkook’s bodies together, and nothing could compare to that.

He wonders why, after so, so, so long of being cold, he has become warm. It seems too simple for it to be merely the result of his heart beating again so he can feed his fledgling. Perhaps he had gotten so used to being cold and alone, though, that being given such warmth – inside and out, and from another person too – feels bigger than what it is.

Jungkook has given him so many wonderful things, just by allowing him to be his.

He focuses on progressing through his shower because he would like to be there when Jungkook is finished with his. He begins to shampoo his hair as he thinks through the night in his head.

He does not deserve a friend like Jimin. He has done nothing worthy of being given someone so kind and forgiving, someone who has stayed with him through his years of feeling nothing and still did everything he could to try to fill the emptiness within him. He did not realize the extent of how distressed he felt from their fight until he felt that he and Jimin were by each other’s sides again. He does not know how he could have let it go on so long. He feels so lucky to have a best friend who understands him so well that whatever it is that has taken over Taehyung, Jimin understands it as if it were him. Taehyung will do everything he possibly can to be deserving of Jimin, because it is what he should have been trying to do this entire time.

A smile comes to his face unbidden when he thinks about wrestling with Jungkook. His energetic little fledgling who has brought so much laughter and fun to his life just within the week he has been here. Taehyung felt young while they played. He knows that his body does not reflect the age that he has progressed to, but his mind certainly has. And for the first time in at least a century, he felt young. He felt like his curse to live for eternity was no longer a curse, because it allowed him to live until he met Jungkook and could play with him. Until he was able to feel like he was experiencing his youth once again, and it was only their first night out. There is a lifetime ahead of unlearning the age he has allowed himself to feel.

A quiet voice in the back of his head whispers, A lifetime that could be cut short when the fledgling ages out of needing a sire to guide him.

He banishes it before it can influence the way he feels, this excited youthfulness that has simmered into something sleepy as he washes his body. Instead he thinks about what they should do next to test Jungkook’s progress in his new vampirehood. He has the self-control and lucidity of a vampire at least one year in age, so Taehyung’s own sirehood is in an unusual spot that he did not prepare for. He supposes he should be thankful, but he is still unsure where to go from here since it has progressed so rapidly.

He wonders why that is.

He does not think it can be solely the cause of Jungkook’s circumstances: that he was willing to accept any change to his life, whatever it may be. That cannot influence biology – especially to this extent. He was turned into a monster, and years of life are then spent unlearning that he is a monster. It takes time to learn that there is a way to live justly, so much time spent finding their humanity that is stripped from them once venom enters their bloodstream. He would blame it on Jungkook being an angel in his human life, so much that it has guided this new life as well. But that cannot be true either (at least not the second half of it). He himself experienced this turning and years of being a newborn. He recalls being a monster, and how much time and effort it took for him to find who he is beneath that.

He does not know why it has been so easy for Jungkook, but he is glad for it, for both of their sakes.

Once he has finished washing his body of the dirt and grass stains he acquired, he towel-dries his hair and dresses in pajamas. He feels a little nervous to be in pajamas around Jungkook. It feels strangely vulnerable. Even more so when he realizes he does not have socks. Jungkook will see him in his pajama set, with bare feet. And his hair is still damp. Taehyung suddenly feels very overwhelmed.

He does not want to keep Jungkook waiting alone though, so he swallows the silliness down. He pads barefoot (barefoot!) across the hall, back to his bedroom, where he can smell his fledgling hidden beneath the faint scent of soap.

He knocks on the door. He hears a quiet “come in,” and his entrance brings an immediate question from Jungkook. “Do we have to get permission to go inside people’s houses?”

He is lying in bed, cozy under the duvet with his arms folded beneath his head on the pillow. His hair is towel dried as well, falling wavy against the red silk pillowcase. He is such a beautiful boy. He looks so comfortable. In bed, yes, but here too.

Taehyung sits at his side on the bed. He moves a lock of hair from his face. “We do,” he says. “Not just houses though. Any building that is not abandoned. Stores, museums, places any humans go.”

Jungkook’s eyes go wide. “But what about–we can’t just wait around for the person who pays the rent to show up.”

Taehyung chuckles, petting his hair in the way both he and Jungkook seem to like. “When it comes to things like that, we just have to wait for someone to hold the door open for us, and we will be allowed entry.”

“That seems like cheating,” Jungkook mutters. “We could just go in and kill everybody.”

A surprised laugh bubbles out of Taehyung. “Is that your plan?”

“No, but it could be someone else’s. What do humans smell like? And keep playing with my hair.”

Taehyung laughs again and lightly tugs on it. “You could say please,” he scolds. “If I were like other sires, you would have been out on the streets by now.”

“Yeah, but I’m special. You like me.”

Taehyung chuckles. “That is very true. I am very fond of my little fledgling, and he knows that and knows he can get away with making demands.” Jungkook nods with a serene smile. They both know he is going to be so spoiled. “Humans… just smell like blood, I suppose. You are unable to smell that in me, because I am not a human, so my blood is different. They smell different though.”

“Do they smell good?” Jungkook asks. “Do they smell different from each other?”

Taehyung hums. “I wouldn’t say they smell good exactly. Not like a candle you would like to burn in your home. But they do smell appealing, I suppose. And they do not smell differently from one another; they all just smell like blood.” He hesitates. He is unsure how Jungkook would react to knowing that he, for some reason, smelled different, and that Taehyung was captivated by his scent. He clears his throat and speaks hesitantly. “I have… been around many, many humans in my life, so I know that the way they smell does not vary. It is simply the smell of blood. But I… I met someone who did smell different. Someone who smelled very different, better than anything I have smelled before, both in my human and non-human years.”

Taehyung feels intense, all-consuming jealousy inside of him. It does not come from him. He would never know that it came from Jungkook because of the way he says, “Yeah?” so casually, so unbothered.

“Mhm,” Taehyung says. He continues cascading his fingers through Jungkook’s hair. “He eventually became my little fledgling.”

Jungkook’s entire head jerks up to look at him, eyes widening. “Me?” he asks.

Taehyung nods. The feeling of jealousy in his chest fades to nothing, to contentment. “I am not sure why, but you are the first person who has ever smelled different to me. The first person who smelled like something more than just blood. But please do not think that that is why I kept returning to you, as if you were an alluring meal to me that I kept having to resist. I am sure the different things that I say – that you were so beautiful, that you smelled wonderful – could make it seem that this was my plan all along. That I wanted to turn you and keep you, but I promise with everything I have that that was not the case. If anything, it made me want to protect you. To preserve you, to keep you untainted by me.”

“Sire,” Jungkook says quietly. “I don’t think that, and–and you didn’t taint me. You–” He had reached up to brush his hair out of his eyes, but a simple brush against his face brings about a loud, pained whine.

“Darling?” Taehyung asks, eyes widening as he looks around Jungkook’s face, trying to see anything amiss.

Jungkook whines again, but more petulant this time, rather than painful. “My m-mouth hurts. My gums, my fangs, I dunno, but it hurts.” As he speaks, Taehyung can see a peek of them – not fully revealed and not fully hidden, in an in-between state because doing one or the other would feel painful.

“Oh, my love,” Taehyung says. He tries not to laugh but does not succeed, making Jungkook whine even further. It is just silly, because he is teething just like he did in his human newborn years. Jungkook pokes the top of his fangs, and another pained sound fills the room – this one more genuine. “Here, let me, my little fledgling. Sire will make it better for you.”

With no hesitation, he opens Jungkook’s mouth wider, and he rests his thumbs just above his fangs, on his tender gums. It pulls out a pained hiss, but it fizzles off into a moan when Taehyung moves his thumbs in gentle circles. Jungkook's eyes close, and he fully melts into the bed. Incessant moans come from his chest. “Is that better for you?” Taehyung asks softly. Jungkook just nods, his eyes remaining closed in bliss.

There is that feeling of wholeness again, that rightness, that reassurance that he is doing what he is meant to be doing, that he is being what he is meant to be being. He is being a good sire to his baby fledgling. He is fulfilling his purpose – as a sire, and as Taehyung – of taking care of this boy.

He massages his gums, studying how relaxed Jungkook’s face looks. Every line smoothed out, lips parted, little sighs escaping from between them. Taehyung only realizes a minute later how confidently he stuck his fingers in Jungkook’s mouth and how easily Jungkook let him. And how neither of them seem embarrassed by what is happening.

He moves his thumbs down so they’re on the top of his canine teeth, feeling the smooth enamel. “Do your fangs themselves hurt?” he asks, lightly pressing down.

Jungkook shakes his head as Taehyung moves his thumbs back up. “No, juth my gumth,” Jungkook says. Taehyung smiles down at him, but Jungkook cannot see it.

“Focus on hiding your fangs,” Taehyung instructs. Jungkook whines and shakes his head in refusal. “I know it hurts; I know it will hurt, darling. I will continue doing this though, and it will feel better. You can do it, my love.” Jungkook shakes his head again, eyebrows furrowing in anticipatory pain. “It will take the ache away, sweet boy. It will hurt as you are doing it, and then it will feel better. And I will be rubbing your gums the whole way through.” Jungkook’s eyebrows furrow in angry acceptance this time. With a loud expression of pain, Jungkook’s fangs slowly disappear while he takes shallow breaths through it. “There we go. That’s my good little fledgling. I know it does not feel good, but it will not last long. I will stay here just like this to try to make it better.”

He continues massaging Jungkook’s gums. It is a strange sensation. It is wet, and he can feel the bones in his mouth that he is rubbing with his thumb and his index finger. He can feel the sighs that come directly out of Jungkook’s mouth too, the breath warm against his skin. He massages him for several minutes, until Jungkook stops whining and begins to fall asleep.

Slowly and carefully, Taehyung pulls his thumbs out of Jungkook’s mouth. He leans back. He stands to cross the room and close the curtains, because the sunlight of dawn is beginning to light the room. Before he can go though, a hand darts out and grabs his wrist. “Where are you going?”

“Just to close the curtains. I will return to you in just a second.” Reluctantly, Jungkook’s grip loosens. Taehyung keeps his word and returns to his side once the room is dark. “I will be right here as you sleep. You can rest.”

“But what about you?” Jungkook asks.

“Hm? What about me?”

“Don’t you want to sleep too? You sound tired…”

Oh, well… Taehyung supposes he is a little tired now that he thinks about it, but that is okay. Jungkook is in his bed, and he doesn’t think Jungkook would like it if he went to another room.

“That’s okay,” he assures him. “I am okay like this.” Before he knows it though, he finds himself on the bed beside Jungkook in a marvelous show of cunning strength that can only come from a fledgling who knows he will not get in trouble for being so demanding.

“‘kay, now it’s sleep time,” Jungkook says, sounding like he’s clinging onto consciousness.

“A-Are you sure this is okay with you?” Taehyung asks. “You are not uncomfortable?”

“This is your bed,” Jungkook tiredly chuckles. “Am kind of uncomfortable though.”

“Oh, I’m–I’m sorry, I will just–” But then the fluffy duvet is over him as well. Then Taehyung is over Jungkook too. His head is guided into the crook of Jungkook’s neck, and his arm and leg is over his torso. He has been placed here. Jungkook’s arms are wrapped around him, and Jungkook wiggles around for a moment before settling down. “There,” he mumbles as he nuzzles his cheek on the top of Taehyung’s head. “Comfy now.”

Taehyung swallows. He wills his body not to shake. He tries to focus on anything but the warmth on every spot they touch. “Are you sure?” he asks again. It is difficult to keep the tremble from his voice.

“Mhm,” Jungkook nods, or maybe continues to nuzzle. “Want my sire right here.”

“Are you–”

Jungkook laughs. “I’m sure, sire. ‘m sure. Lemme hold you. Wanna hold you. Want you right here.”

Taehyung swallows. “O-Okay…”

He feels the warmth of their bodies touching. Their arms, their legs, the warmth of Jungkook’s torso, his heart beating just beneath his ear. It pulls him under. He sinks even further when there are lips against his forehead. A long, soft kiss. What a strange feeling. What a strange thing. Jungkook rests his head back down. “Sire,” Jungkook sighs, on the verge of sleep.

“G-Go to sleep, my darling,” Taehyung whispers. A tear slides down the bridge of his nose.

Jungkook nods sleepily. “G’night,” he says quietly.

My love, Taehyung thinks. My love, my love, my love, he is my love, he is my love, something is there, in my chest, he is my love, I am in his arms, he is my love.

“Goodnight, sweet fledgling,” Taehyung whispers. He would like to stay awake for longer, to feel this for longer, the warmth of their bodies, the warmth of his chest, the feeling of rightness that he thinks he has been searching for for a long, long time without truly knowing it. He wants to feel it more, all of these things, this feeling in his chest, but when Jungkook falls asleep and Taehyung can hear the beating of his heart slow, he follows after him, because he cannot be too far.

Chapter Text

“Jungkook-ah, I am not saying this because I would like to coddle you. This is not something that exists for only you. Do not touch the sunlight.”

They are in the living room while the sun is still in the sky. It is shining through the windowpanes and warming the floor, casting thin shadows while dust motes lazily sway through the rays. Hoseok and Namjoon are spending time with them while a movie plays on the television, and they have provided no assistance in trying to make Jungkook behave and listen to what his sire tries to tell him. They find it amusing to watch Jungkook test Taehyung’s limits. They often conspire and talk about how it would be if any other person or vampire alive tried to disobey Taehyung – and when it is Jungkook, Taehyung is rarely even able to scold. Taehyung ignores them, because Jungkook is headstrong and stubborn and keeps testing his own limits. He keeps insisting that he is strong and tough and therefore the rules of vampirism, that apply to them all, are things that will not bother him.

“It won’t hurt me,” Jungkook avows. “I know; I can just tell. You keep saying I’m so good for a fledgling.”

“You are not being good right now though,” Taehyung says. “You are being stubborn.”

“I’m good with how advanced I am though! It won’t hurt me! I know it.”

Taehyung sighs and sinks back into the couch while their friends watch, amused. “Fine then,” he says. “Go ahead.” It is the only way he will learn, because he refuses to do so from his sire on this subject.

Jungkook smiles, triumphant and cocky because he won. He slowly extends his hand so that it will mingle with the rays of light that are in the room with them. There is still that smile on his face that shows he believes he will be proven right.

And just as Taehyung knew he would, Jungkook yanks his hand back with a loud scream. He holds it close to his chest, wide- and teary-eyed as he looks at Taehyung and whines, a panicked sound.

“Come here, little fledgling,” Taehyung sighs. Jungkook rushes over and scrambles onto the couch. He seats himself sideways in Taehyung’s lap, face panicked as the two of them inspect his hand. There is a burn mark on it, of course, and far worse than even Taehyung anticipated, but it makes sense since Jungkook has not been a vampire for very long. “It will heal soon.”

“Tae,” Jungkook whimpers. “H-Hurts.”

“Perhaps you should listen to your sire next time, you stubborn boy,” Taehyung scolds much too softly. He takes Jungkook’s hand, and he blows on the scorched mark on the top to try to soothe it. It seems to work, because some of the tension lifts from Jungkook’s features.

Taehyung continues to blow on it as he watches it fade from a deep red to a dark pink. Once the skin turns another shade lighter and he knows he will be okay, he finishes it with a gentle kiss.

Jungkook is not yet finished with soaking up the coddling he insisted he did not need though, because he tucks his head beneath Taehyung’s chin and stays in his lap. “Silly little fledgling,” Taehyung chides as he drops a kiss on his head. His clingy boy, always wanting his sire’s affection and attention.

Taehyung turns to his friends to ask them when they learned they will not get an instant burn upon touching sunlight, but he finds that they are no longer in the room. He did not hear their departure, and it seems Jungkook did not either when he lifts his head and says, “Namjoon–” before realizing they are alone. “Hm.” Then Jungkook tucks his head back down, their unnoticed absence already forgotten about. “Did you like your parents?”

Jungkook has taken to asking him questions about his life here and there, and the interest in him feels sweet. It’s made Taehyung feel comfortable to ask him things in return, and they have gotten to know a lot about each other in these few weeks spent together. Taehyung has heard more about Jungkook’s home life – about what his home itself was like, and how it feels to be at the manor when that and living outside was all he had known. He learns some uncomfortable stories about when he was homeless, about some of the vampires he met because he would give them his blood. They did not linger on those stories for long, because they could both feel the emotion that would rise in Taehyung. He has learned many little things too – his favorite human foods, activities he likes to do within each of the seasons, which cat currently around the manor is his favorite. Jungkook learned all of those things about Taehyung in return too, along with his own stories. There are so many things to learn about one another, and it is nice to do so. It is like they have already settled into their home, and now they are unpacking some of the boxes.

“They were alright, I suppose,” he answers his fledgling’s question. “Things were different back then, and parenting was not as involved or personal as it is now. I left home at a young age and did not go back to visit often, because I felt that it did not make a difference to them. It did not make very much of a difference to me either. We did not have a relationship like that; it was almost as if we simply lived in the same house.”

“What did you do when you moved out?”

“I left home and came to the city when I was sixteen. It was nowhere near what it is like now, of course, but it was still more than the village I was born in. I worked for the city’s grocer, doing any of the heavy lifting that was required. It was mostly a manual labor job. It was difficult, but I was young and it was simple.”

“Is it bad to ask other vampires about when they were turned? Like too personal or something…”

“It is,” Taehyung tells him. “It is very rare that there is a turning that does not include death or violence or trauma, so they are not stories that are often shared. I still do not know the stories of a few who live here with us.”

Jungkook nods. “Yeah, makes sense,” he says. His voice is so soft, almost like he were falling asleep, but Taehyung knows he is wide awake. It’s as if he is so calm and content being held like this that it is softening him. Taehyung feels the same.

“Would you like to know mine?”

Jungkook leans back, doe eyes looking earnestly. “You don’t have to tell me. I was just wondering if that’s not something I should ask.”

“I know,” Taehyung says. He leans in and kisses Jungkook’s eyebrow. “My darling boy.” One more kiss before he looks down at him again. The way Jungkook looks at him is so pure and open. Taehyung does not know how he has been trusted with such vulnerability, how he is allowed to see Jungkook for who he is with no defenses up. “My love,” he whispers, unable to hold himself back from one more kiss to his forehead. “I do not mind telling you. I know your story, after all.”

Jungkook chuckles and tucks himself back under his chin. “Doesn’t count. You’re the one who did it.”

Taehyung nuzzles into his hair. He has not yet sat with the feeling, the knowledge that is the one responsible for turning Jungkook. For subjecting him to an eternity of life, to a change in who he is, to taking his humanity away. He has not done so because he does not want to acknowledge that he does not feel guilty for doing it. He does not want to acknowledge that he would make the decision again and again, even if it is selfish.

“I actually do not recall the year I was turned,” Taehyung chuckles. “Nor can I recall the year, or even the day, that I was born as a human. I just somehow remembered that I was forty-two when I was bitten.

“I did not have a sire to guide me, so I spent a long time not controlling – or wanting to control – my depravity. I did not fight against the monster that I became. It is so easy to allow it to take over when you are turned. I think you were able to feel that briefly when you awoke, but you were so much better at finding your humanity again than I was.”

“It’s because of you,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung is not certain that that is true. Even if he was able to help just a fraction though, he would be proud to be credited with it by his fledgling. “I am not sure what it is that guided me back to parts of myself,” he continues. “I am unsure how much time had passed, but all that I recall is that the things around me were unrecognizable. Different styles of clothing. Machinery that was foreign and strange to me. A city that I did not recognize, because I had somehow ended up across the country. I suspect that three decades had passed, perhaps–”

“Three?” Jungkook says, leaning back to look at him again. “I haven’t even been alive for three decades.”

Taehyung chuckles. “I know,” he says. “I do not know the extent of the things I did, but I… I recall glimpses of newspapers. A serial killer that had been terrorizing the country for a long while. Talks about a vampire from the more… outcasted folk, since, I assume, the bodies they found were drained of blood.” He shakes his head, trying to whisk the memories away. He does not deserve to get to do that, he deserves to have it plague his mind for the rest of eternity. But he ignores it again for now. He chuckles. “I am getting ahead of myself though. Just–I do not recall when it happened, just that it was long ago, and I was lost for a while after.”

He whines when Jungkook moves off of him and brings the warmth of his body with him. Taehyung cannot believe he has been turned into such a whiny, clingy creature so easily. Then he panics, because Jungkook has just heard that his sire was a serial killer for years, and maybe now the way he thinks of him has changed.

Instead, though, Jungkook stretches out on the couch so he’s lying down, and he takes Taehyung with him. He forces Taehyung to lay in front of him, so he is sandwiched between the back of the couch and Jungkook’s body. The couch is wide enough that Jungkook can fit as well, with enough space between them for their arms to rest and for Jungkook to, now, hold his hand. When he sees Jungkook look at him with soft curiosity and sweet empathy, Taehyung could cry because he realizes Jungkook did it for comfort. So that Taehyung can see him when he talks and be reassured through it all, and he can be held in some way too. He says, “We don’t have to keep talking about it if you don’t want to.”

“No, I don’t mind,” Taehyung assures him. “I just… I do not want your view of me to change if you hear about bad things I have done.”

Jungkook rolls his eyes. Taehyung’s heart does some things he isn't sure it has ever done before when Jungkook brings his hand to his lips, and he kisses each of his knuckles as their eyes stay locked together. Taehyung thinks he might love this boy. He is not sure in what way, but he knows he adores him. Jungkook smiles into one of the kisses when he sees the blush Taehyung can feel on his warm cheeks. “You’ve been alive for a long time, sire,” Jungkook says. “Obviously you wouldn’t have been perfect that whole time, especially when you didn’t have someone like you, like I do.” ‘Not being perfect’ is putting it so, so lightly, but he appreciates the words all the same.

Still nervous, in case something will cause Jungkook to change his mind, Taehyung continues with his story. “Many years before I presumably wiped out cities,” he says sardonically, but somehow is worthy of receiving a squeeze to his hand as comfort from his fledgling, “I was walking home from work. I was forty-two, and I was an artist at that time.”

“An artist?” Jungkook says, brightening in surprise. “As your job?” Taehyung hums and nods. “What kind of artist?”

“I painted portraits for people who commissioned them.”

“Wow,” Jungkook says, sounding awed. Taehyung remembers that Jungkook is an artist as well. “Do you still paint?”

Taehyung swallows.

He is unsure how to explain the feeling in his chest.

He is unsure of why it is there at all.

He is unsure why, one day, he set down a brush and never picked it up again. Why the mere thought of doing so again felt like something was being ripped out of him, and he could never explain why. He does not think it has anything to do with it being tied to the humanness that was stolen from him; he is certain it is not that. Thinking of it, though, threatens to bring about a despair so strong it would pale in comparison to the many times he has fallen to his knees in anguish.

“I do not,” he says simply.

Something within him alights in the dimmest of glows. At the edges of his unplaceable fear, there is a curiosity. Not a curiosity for why he stopped, because he locks away any wandering thought the moment it comes about, because he knows what comes with it. But a curiosity for what it might be like to start again.

“Anyway,” he promptly continues. “I was walking home from my painting studio. Many artists lived above their studio, or lived in the homes of noble families that commissioned them. My studio did not belong solely to me though, so I did not live there. I did not live far, perhaps a twenty minute walk. It led me down a road seldom traveled, for the dirt had never leveled out graciously no matter how often men tried, and it remained too bumpy for wagons to be pulled down. I can see you are about to laugh, little fledgling, and do you think the night of my death is the time for that?” He says it through a laugh though, because Jungkook is clearly trying as hard as he can to not let his laughter free. His lips are pressed together and his cheeks puffing out just slightly.

Jungkook does indeed laugh when he says, “Wagons?!”

“I am glad my age has continued to be a source of amusement for you.”

Jungkook continues to giggle, and Taehyung cannot help but join him, although there is an underlying whine that wishes to come through. His own laughter turns into giggles when Jungkook pulls him into him, hugging him to his chest as they continue to laugh. Taehyung adores him. Jungkook rolls onto his back and takes Taehyung with him. His arms warp around Taehyung as he tucks himself into his fledgling’s side – a position they find themselves in almost every night. It is something he fought so hard against. It is sometimes difficult to settle into it, being held. Sometimes he wants to run, because he does not know how to be held. Sometimes he wants to roll them over, because he thinks he should be the one to hold his fledgling. Sometimes when he lets those things wade away, he melts into Jungkook, because he did not know how badly he wished to be in his arms.

Taehyung tilts his head up to look at him as his giggles die down. “Have you sobered from your outburst?” he asks. “May I continue relaying my tragedy for you?”

“The guilt-tripping doesn’t work when I have my own tragedy too,” Jungkook says, tugging on his ear like Taehyung has done to him so often. What a strange life Taehyung has found himself in.

“Bratty little fledgling,” Taehyung grumbles and lies his head back down. “I ought to punish you for how you treat your sire.”

He feels Jungkook’s smile against his hair where he is nuzzling himself. “You won’t,” he says.

Taehyung just huffs, because he is correct. “Anyway,” he attempts to continue. “I was walking home, with dark forest on both sides of me – quite a ways from town too. I did not have a lantern, nor were there street lanterns there, so it was pitch dark. But I had made the walk several times before, and I did not feel unsafe in my town, so it was no bother to me.”

Taehyung has not recalled the night he was turned in a long, long while. He cannot recall the last time he did. There is a vague memory somewhere within him, a memory of telling someone his story, but it could be a mirage in his head, because it is not something he so easily would have given up. He has not even told any of his friends before, and he does not talk to anyone outside of them.

But everything that is his, it is Jungkook’s too. Everything that he is is his fledgling’s too.

Still, a feeling of discomfort arises in him. A feeling of unease as he recalls the moment he felt someone else there within him. The moment of fear when he heard a rustling in the forest surrounding him. When he knew he was being followed, but he could see nothing no matter where he looked, only darkness and the sense of someone watching him. He always enjoyed those walks home at night, the sound of his footsteps against the dirt road, the way the trees looked around him and how they changed in each season. It all felt worse than it would have anywhere else, because it was the sense of feeling unsafe somewhere he found peaceful solace in, especially when only a human – and one who was not exactly young as well.

“You’re okay, sire,” he hears through the darkness of his memories. A hand running up and down his arm replaces the feeling of the wind through the trees. The daylight of the living room shines through the darkness that surrounded him. The feeling of fear of knowing he was not alone then is replaced with the comfort of knowing he is not alone now. “It happened a long time ago. It’s okay now. You’re with me.”

Taehyung closes his eyes, and he sinks down onto Jungkook. “I am,” he says quietly. “And I am so lucky to be here with you.” He takes several moments to gather himself so he can finish his tale. It is not like him to be affected by it, all of these many years later. Perhaps it is because he is never so vulnerable around another soul. “Everything that followed is everything you would expect. Suddenly a blur came out from the forest, and I found myself on the ground with something heavy on top of me.

“I would have been able to fight anybody off despite my slightly-old age, but I soon found myself lightheaded and unable to move. Still, I tried until I could not anymore. As I tried to escape, I scratched my attacker and I caused them to bleed. At least I believe that I did, because it is the only conclusion that I can come to for how I was turned. I was left in the dark road, where the vampire most likely assumed I was left for dead. But as they left, some of the blood I drew from them must have gotten inside of me somehow. And paired with the bite, I had been turned without them intending to do so.

“I woke up to the sun burning me. I did not have time to ponder what happened, because it had already taken over. I was not myself. I hid in the shade of the forest, finding blood where I could until night fell, and I made my way through my town. Everybody I had known – my friends I made, people I knew and saw every day – I left them there, drained of life. I remember that first day, but everything following after is a blur, except for brief flashes of bodies, occasional memories of screams. There is a reprieve somehow, somewhere, but even that is a blur before I lost many more years.

“Much of my life is lost to me. From the years I let the monster in me take over, to the time I was pulled out of it, and after that too, before I seemed to wake up again. It must have been another hundred years that I wandered the way I had been, with everything grey and empty, even as I acquired a new family. It became a matter of everything being black, then everything being grey. I do not know which I preferred.”

He rolls off of Jungkook. He pulls his fledgling with him, so they lie on their sides facing each other once more. Jungkook’s face is hiding traces of anguish, as if he is feeling Taehyung’s pain for him – even when Taehyung isn’t feeling it and is only recalling the memories. He reaches up and traces his fingers down the side of Jungkook’s face. Down his soft cheek, the curve of his jaw. “And then I found you again,” he whispers. And everything was in full color.

Jungkook’s eyes roam around his face. Taking him in as Taehyung does the same. Studying him in a way he hasn’t done in a long time, like he is a painter again, and he is looking at his muse. Jungkook takes his hand, and he kisses his palm before he holds it in his own.

Jungkook nods.

The moment lasts for lifetimes, Taehyung thinks. As they just look at each other, feeling the same wholeness.

Then Jungkook’s eyebrows furrow. “Again?” he asks.

Taehyung’s eyebrows do the same. “Hm?”

“You said ‘again.’”

Taehyung blinks at him. “Did I?” Jungkook nods. “Oh…” He does not recall misspeaking, but he supposes he must have when so lost in his head. “And then I found you,” he corrects. A whisper in his head of again.

Taehyung is about to ask Jungkook for a story of his own, about anything he wishes to share, to try to lighten the mood from his own tale. But before he can do so, his fledgling abruptly sits up. He gazes across the living room, out the window that overlooks the front of the property. It is only forest.

Jungkook senses it just a half second before Taehyung does, but that is all it takes.

Suddenly Jungkook is no longer tangled up on the couch with him. He is not in the manor at all. Namjoon exits his office at the sound of the front door slamming open. Hoseok and Yoongi walk out from their wing of the home, looking disgruntled. They all register what has happened at the same time, but Taehyung is out of the manor before they are.

Taehyung has never been so grateful for their curse before. With the first step Jungkook attempts to take off the porch, he cowers back with a hiss when he is met with the light of the setting sun. He is too young to tolerate any of it, so he is trapped with eyes set ablaze, chest heaving as he growls.

Taehyung ignores the sting of the light, because he is old enough to withstand it. He stands at the bottom of the porch steps, in front of the fledgling. He sees Jungkook’s deep red eyes dart around the property, looking for shadows he can escape within to make his way to the forest. To the human that is stumbling toward the manor. The human is still a mile away, maybe more, but with a sense of smell so strong – especially that of a newborn vampire – it is as if they have already arrived.

“Jungkook,” Taehyung says calmly. His arms are stretched out in front of him, trying to keep Jungkook back even though he’s fairly certain he will not risk the pain or the danger of the sunlight. He cannot say for certain if that is a rational decision he would make though, because he is not looking at Jungkook right now; he is looking at a vampire. “Let’s go back inside the house, darling.”

He can tell Jungkook cannot even hear him. His pupils are dilated like a predator sensing its prey, irises red with a lust for blood. He looks at Taehyung the same way, like a deadly animal searching for weaknesses on him to lunge at. They are not mindless monsters when their humanity has left; they are cunning and methodical. He watches his fledgling look for ways to make his escape when the sun sinks further into the horizon. There are only minutes until the sky will go dark, allowing the monsters to come out.

“Jungkook, sweetheart, let’s go back inside,” Taehyung says softly. Jungkook is looking over his shoulder. He looks up to the sky, then out into the forest, his chest moving rapidly with his rapid breaths. The light of the dying sun is glinting off of his fangs as he waits for the moonlight to do the same. A crowd is gathering in the doorway behind Jungkook, watching them, alarmed. “Jungkook, my love, listen to my voice, darling. You can hear me. Come out of your pretty little head, my sweet boy.” He can tell Jungkook is lost to him, lost to this creature, this monster that wants to attack the stumbling, idiotic human coming nearer to them.

“Tae,” someone’s voice behind him says, “maybe you should–”

“Shut up,” he snaps, harsher than he intended. It makes everyone go silent. The only sounds in the entire expanse of the manor’s grounds are the growls emanating from Jungkook as he riles up more and more, watching the sky and the forest, seeing if the human or the moon will come out first. “Jungkook-ah, you don’t–” A cloud drifts over the last bit of sun that lingered with them. It is all Jungkook needs to bolt out of the shadows and into the arrival of night.

Jungkook has the advantages of youth, but Taehyung has those of age. He is smarter where Jungkook is brute force, lost to bloodlust and unable to think cleverly enough to escape his sire. The desire and obsession when triggered by blood cannot compare to that of a sire’s devotion to his fledgling. Or perhaps only Taehyung’s.

Taehyung stops him in his tracks in the middle of the field, halfway between the manor and the edge of the woods. Jungkook growls at him in a dangerous warning. He attempts to go around him, faster than the human eye could catch, but Taehyung can anticipate the moves Jungkook is not even aware he is going to make. Every escape is blocked by Taehyung. He does not touch him, but remains in front of him with his arms held out, trying to keep him back without capturing him.

Jungkook has only been looking at the forest, or around them for potential ways to escape. He finally looks away from his surroundings, and right at Taehyung. They lock eyes. A chill like the cold late-autumn wind rushes down Taehyung’s spine.

There is no Jungkook in those eyes. They are only those of a vampire, with their sights set on a kill.

“Jungkook, my love,” Taehyung says softly to him. He tries to reach for him through the bond. He tries to grasp his hand there, wrap him in the protective arms of his sire, and lead him back to himself. Back to Taehyung.

But it is hard to find him there. It is as if so little of Jungkook is there that it is hard to reach him. He only reaches through smoke and mirages, the warm golden light fading into shadows. Feeling his absence nearly causes Taehyung’s knees to collapse. An aching emptiness begins to arise. It somehow feels so familiar, that abrupt isolation and the despair that follows it.

But he cannot focus on it, because Jungkook tries to escape again. He has cruelly taken advantage of Taehyung’s sudden vulnerability, and he breaks away successfully. He makes it to the edge of the barren forest, escaping through the spindly trees. Jimin and Hoseok gain on him before Taehyung can, because he is allowing himself to become distracted with the taunting return of an old, unfamiliar sorrow. His friends are halted in their tracks when Taehyung roars, “DO NOT TOUCH HIM.” The threat behind the words is enough to send even the most fearsome creatures trembling, enough to make the birds that have not left for winter escape from the barren branches in a panicked burst.

Taehyung can smell the human. They are getting closer and closer, and Jungkook is still a few steps in front of him. He feels impossible to reach with the speed Taehyung does not possess, because he is not a young vampire without self-control to drive him.

With a single-minded focus on just reaching the human, Jungkook lacks the gracefulness that will one day come to him. He stumbles on a fallen tree branch laid awkwardly in his path, and the mere millisecond of it is enough for Taehyung to reach him.

He did not want to restrain him or fight him. He wanted Jungkook to find it within himself to do it on his own, but perhaps Taehyung was too hopeful and naïve. He wraps his arms around Jungkook from behind as he kicks the boy’s ankles, and he sends them both tumbling in the dead fallen leaves. Taehyung forces his way on top of him. He restrains him in the way he did the night they wrestled, but neither of them are laughing with carefree smiles. Jungkook thrashes and hisses and uses every ounce of fight in him, but Taehyung keeps him pinned to the ground as if he were unmovable stone. He can hear and smell the human so close, and Jungkook can as well, almost succeeding in throwing his sire off. “GET THE HUMAN AWAY FROM HERE,” Taehyung screams over his shoulder. As soon as the last word is out, two blurs rush past them. A scream follows, but the scent of the human recedes.

Still, their scent lingers in the air. It leaves a trail for Jungkook to follow and awakens the part of him that lusts to track his prey. “Jungkook, be still,” Taehyung yells. He tightens his grip on him, enough to leave bruises behind. No matter what he yells or the way he pleads, Jungkook does not stop fighting. He will not run out of energy and his bloodlust will not fade from him by himself, but Taehyung cannot reach him. He cannot help him; he can not feel him. Jungkook cannot hear him.

He does not know what to do. He screams at him, wracking his brain for answers, tears falling from his cheeks and onto Jungkook’s. He lifts his hand from Jungkook’s wrist. It gives Jungkook an advantage, but then he brings his forearm to Jungkook’s mouth. He forces Jungkook’s fangs into his skin. He hisses and whimpers in pain because they sink deep enough to tear through the muscle, straight to the bone.

But it works.

Rather than using his freed arm to push Taehyung off, he clutches onto his forearm instead, keeping him there while he feeds. His eyes are squeezed shut as he takes drinks from him so deep and greedy that Taehyung can feel the blood leaving him in large rushes.

And little by little, he can feel Jungkook again. That little spark in his chest alights again. It spreads as if it has been gently blown on, the flame widening and illuminating itself more fully like a flickering candle emanating warm light. And suddenly Jungkook is there again. His eyes open. The night sky replaces the red sea as he looks up at his sire in the way his little fledgling does.

Taehyung collapses down onto him as if the life has been drained from him and he is left with only enough to close his eyelids. Jungkook’s fangs slide out of his arm before the wounds are quickly licked closed. “S-Sire?” he asks, sounding scared and confused.

Taehyung cannot find the words within him. He isn’t sure if it is from the blood Jungkook took or from how drained he feels from the fight, but he is not made of much anymore. Even when part of Jungkook resides in his chest, the emptiness of his sudden absence somehow lingers, like a memory he is not yet healed from enough to let go.

“Sire?” Jungkook says again. He sounds panicked and scared as he shakes Taehyung’s shoulder.

“Here, let’s–” Taehyung hears Jimin say, but it’s abruptly cut off with, “DON’T TOUCH HIM,” loud and threatening enough Taehyung thinks the gust of wind through the empty tree branches was caused by it.

Slowly, the world moves from under him. He is able to flutter his eyes open for just enough to see that he is now upright. His eyes close again. Hands are on his cheeks, warm and real. “Tae,” Jungkook whispers as he rests their foreheads together. “I’m sorry, sire. I-I’m sorry.”

The pain in Taehyung’s chest is no longer just his own. He does not want to be the reason why Jungkook is hurting. He tries to free himself from the clutches of the emptiness that opened up inside of him to focus on his fledgling, because that is what he is meant to do. “It’s…” he says. It uses all of his energy to get just the single word out, so the rest comes from under his breath. “It’s okay, my love.”

“Tae,” Jungkook whimpers. The flutter of his eyelashes brush Taehyung’s as his eyes close.

“It’s okay,” Taehyung says more easily this time. He focuses on Jungkook’s breath against his lips. The warmth of his palms that still rest on his cheeks. The cold autumn breeze that rustles the crunchy leaves they are sitting amongst. The feeling of the emptiness remains, but the emptiness itself does not. Because Jungkook is here. His love is here.

“I–I didn’t m-mean to–”

“I know, my darling,” Taehyung says. He rests his hands on Jungkook’s cheeks, and Jungkook lets his own fall. Taehyung’s heart settles and warms watching his boy indulge himself in the comfort of his sire. “I know it is not easy. You did so well, my precious boy. Sire is so proud of you.”

“I didn’t do w–”

“You did,” Taehyung says. He swipes away the tears falling from Jungkook’s eyes. “Just an hour ago you heard me tell you that I was lost for decades. Y-You were gone for only a few minutes.”

Jungkook leans back, wide-eyed. “Tae? What’s–” Taehyung wraps his arms around Jungkook in a hug, burying his face in his neck as he tries to silence his cries. “Sire, w-what’s wrong?”

Jungkook tightens his arms around him, and it is all he can feel. He lets it be the only thing he can feel. The warmth and safety of being held so securely. He feels as if his life is in Jungkook’s hands at this moment, and Jungkook would do anything to protect it. He is held as if he is important and precious. He is held the way he wants to be held, as if–as if Jungkook already knows. As if he knows to glide one hand up his back, along his neck to tangle his fingers in his hair to hold the back of his head, like a baby being cradled. He knows to move his other hand beneath his shirt to rest it against his bare side. He holds him in the way he needs him to, and he does not want this to ever be taken from him. The pain of it feels so real, that it is as if he is not imagining what it might be like to lose it, to lose this, to lose him. It feels as if it is just returning, not something his imagination is conjuring to feed his fear. Taehyung huddles close, tries to burrow further, wants to climb into Jungkook’s chest fully, where he would be held safe inside of him. “You have to stay with me,” he somehow manages to say. “Y-You cannot stray too far, you cannot leave me here without you.” Not again, something in him begs. Not again, not again, not again, something in him pleads as he shakes his head as if he can stop it from happening.

“Tae, I won’t, I won’t,” Jungkook begs him to understand. “I–” A sigh from Jungkook as Taehyung sinks his teeth into his neck without realizing it is what he was going to do. Jungkook’s head falls to the side, and the hand under his sweater starts to slowly glide up and down his spine as he hums, sounding pleased. “Good,” he says airily.

Taehyung does not feed from him. He slides his fangs out and closes the holes before they can bleed. He just needed to bite. He relaxes into Jungkook’s arms again, finally feeling okay. It is okay. It will be okay.

The guilt settles in once the fear finally recedes.

He doesn’t want Jungkook to feel like he cannot make mistakes because of how Taehyung might react to it. He doesn’t want him to feel like he has to be perfect, or else his sire will have a breakdown. It is already so difficult to be in Jungkook’s position, to be so young and inexperienced and have to fight through his instincts that try so hard to take who he is away from him. It is so hard, and Taehyung is meant to ease some of that burden from him, not make it worse.

“We should go inside,” he says.

“Yeah, it’s kinda scary out here…” Jungkook says.

Taehyung lifts his head and looks around. They are in the middle of the forest still, the sky dark, the moon hidden behind unseen clouds. The trees are looming, bony arms reaching toward the darkness above them, empty of any leaves, their carcasses sprinkled around them as their bodies rustle with the wind. Taehyung laughs, the sound echoing. “Jungkook-ah, we are what is scary out here.”

“Still…” he says. Taehyung chuckles and reluctantly gets off of his fledgling. As soon as he stands, he is overcome with shyness. He tries to ignore it as he brushes the dust of the leaves they fought in off from his clothes. Jungkook does the same when he stands, and they walk back toward the manor. They reach for each other’s hands at the same time, and they idly swing between them as they take their time on the way back – probably because their bodies both reflect the strain from the evening, even if they are vampires and it did not last very long.

They do not speak the entire mile walk. There is a slight tension to the silence, but it mostly feels like relief that they are walking back together, the both of them themselves.

The door to the manor feels loud as it creaks open to a silent home. Taehyung is grateful that they are not met with anybody and are able to go to their living quarters without having to speak about what happened yet. That is until, when they are stepping into their room, Jimin yells from somewhere in the manor, “You two owe me an apology for both of you yelling at me! More than once!” Taehyung chuckles. He supposes they do.

Even though they are in need of it, they do not shower or change their clothes. They fall onto their bed instead.

Taehyung feels like he was hit by a truck. He does not know how that can be, because their bodies do not get sore. They don’t get tired, and they do not get injured. He supposes he does not take into account emotional affliction, because he went a century, maybe more, being numb.

He is beginning to think, for a reason he cannot place, that that was not a side effect of living his long life. Perhaps the decades of allowing the monster inside to consume him, and becoming numb and unfeeling once he freed himself from his clutches, was not solely because he is a vampire. Maybe there was something that he needed to escape from. The pain and the fear became less obscure for only a moment when they were in the forest, but he could not see whose company they were in. He could not see where they started; he has only ever wished for them to end.

He does not think about it further, because the body beside him rolls onto his side. He tucks himself beneath his sire’s arm, with his head on his chest and his arm around his waist. Taehyung wraps his arms around Jungkook like it is ingrained in who he is, that if Jungkook is beside him, he must be in his arms.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jungkook asks softly.

Taehyung knows that he is referring to the… minor breakdown he supposes he had. But he wants to talk about what is most important first. Jungkook.

“I do,” Taehyung says. “We should sit down to discuss it though, because I would like to be able to see each other. Why don’t we shower and change into some fresh clothes, then meet in the sitting area?” Jungkook reluctantly sits up. Taehyung can tell that neither of them want to part, so he proposes, “Why don’t we race, hm?”

Jungkook brightens up like the competitive boy he is and nods. Taehyung goes to his bedroom door while Jungkook goes to the bathroom door, and on Taehyung’s count of three, they disappear from each other to take the speediest showers that they have taken before – their vampire speed working so fast that they keep having to slow down to allow the water to get them wet and wash the shower products off.

Somehow, by the time Taehyung gets back to his bedroom, clad in a robe, Jungkook is lounging fully dressed on his couch, relaxing and intentionally looking like he’s been waiting there for ages. Taehyung chuckles to himself and shakes his head as he walks into his closet to change into something comfortable. Jungkook dresses so indulgently – always wearing sweatpants and the biggest t-shirt he can find – that it has made Taehyung allow himself to dress more casually too. In sweatpants and a t-shirt, his towel-dried hair falling wavy and wispy, he joins Jungkook, who looks the exact same as him (except infinitely more beautiful).

Jungkook has lit the wax candles around the room and turned on a few of the Tiffany lamps throughout his large bedroom. The curtains have been pulled open as well, giving them a grand view of the moon- and lantern-lit grounds. Taehyung sits on the other side of the couch that is occupied by his beautiful boy, his back against the arm of it with his legs bent in front of him. He expects Jungkook to do the same so they can face each other.

Instead, Jungkook takes his legs from him. He stretches them out so they are lying across his lap. Taehyung thinks he might blush, because he is unsure if he has ever been so casual with someone. Dressed in what, to him, are pajamas, their feet bare, hair air-drying in fluffy waves. It is even more strange when Jungkook takes the blanket draped over the back of the couch – something Taehyung isn’t even sure has ever been used for anything but decorative purposes – and throws the fuzzy material over them. Taehyung jumps and accidentally kicks his leg out in surprise when Jungkook’s hand rests on his bare ankle. Jungkook smiles at him, and he slips the leg of his pants up just slightly to expose more of his skin there as he brushes his thumb back and forth. Taehyung has to fight to not allow his eyelids to flutter closed, feeling the warm touch in every part of his body. He does not know if he has ever been touched here, the sensitive, forgotten curve of his Achilles tendon. He feels the caress in every part of his leg.

Jungkook is turned toward him. He is leaning against the back of the couch with his elbow resting on top of it, holding his head up, waiting for his sire to start.

Forcing himself to focus on any thoughts that are not the gentle touch he is experiencing, Taehyung starts. “I am sorry for how I responded to what happened.”

Jungkook’s eyes go wide while his eyebrows furrow. His lips part as he looks at him like he has said something insane. “What?” he asks. “You’re sorry? I’m–”

“Let me speak first,” Taehyung says. Jungkook silences himself, listening to his sire. “You are dealing with something very difficult. You are having to fight your instincts, your behaviors that are calling to you, not wanting to be controlled. You have to deal with so much, because you are still so young. You are allowed to lose that fight sometimes, darling. It is expected that you will do so. There will be times that you slip up and make mistakes; I anticipated you would lose that fight so much more than you have. You are not expected to be perfect, and you should not feel bad when you are not. You should not be afraid to make mistakes or have difficulty in controlling yourself, because it is only natural. You should not be scared of doing so because of how I will react to it. You should be focusing solely on yourself, because I should be focusing solely on my fledgling, not… whatever happened earlier.”

“What did happen?” Jungkook asks.

“I–I cannot focus with the way you are touching me, darling,” Taehyung says, his eyes briefly closing.

Jungkook grins. “Well, you’re going to have to get used to things like this just like I have to get used to being a vampire,” he says. There is a gentle squeeze to his ankle before he continues with the even gentler touch again.

Taehyung begins to speak to evade his blush, but it wants to rise just the same due to embarrassment. “I… I can always feel you,” he says quietly. He rests his hand against his chest so Jungkook knows what he means. “You are always there. I can always feel you. It is–it is as if there was a wholeness when I became your sire, like there had been an emptiness there before, and it was filled by you.” He does not mention that it almost felt more like a returning, rather than something newly felt. He swallows, willing himself to not be affected by his words, because Jungkook is here right now, and he can feel him. “But when you briefly lost control, I–I could not feel you anymore. I could not even reach for you, because it was as if you were no longer there. And it was–it was an emptiness and an absence that I did not like.”

He does not like the look of sadness on Jungkook’s face. He is responsible for it. “I’ll try not to let that happen again.”

“But that is what I am saying!” Taehyung says. “You are a new vampire, only a month old. You will make mistakes. You should focus on the things you have to deal with for the first time, not your sire.”

Jungkook shrugs. “Gonna focus on you too,” he says easily.

“But–but–”

“But nothing,” Jungkook says. “If anything, it’s just motivation to try harder to control myself, because I’m not the only one I’m doing it for.”

“But you should not try to impress me, darling. I should not be what is behind your effort.”

Jungkook shrugs. “Well, you are, so next topic.”

Taehyung blinks at him. He sighs. His headstrong little fledgling. Taehyung suspects he is less in charge of his boy than he thought he was. “How are you feeling?” he asks softly.

Jungkook shrugs, growing a little embarrassed now too. Then he wryly chuckles. “I guess I understand what you were talking about earlier now, because I don’t really remember anything that happened. Just that we were on the couch talking, then we were in the forest on the ground.”

Taehyung nods. It is what he expected. “You heard and smelled a human coming through the forest, so you tried to get to them. You almost succeeded before I was able to stop you.” Taehyung swallows. “Do you recall being able to… to feel me reaching for you?”

He wishes he hadn’t asked, because he hates the pain he sees on Jungkook’s face when he makes him say, “No.”

Taehyung swallows and nods, looking down at his hands. “Yeah, thought so…”

Then he looks up because he feels the most lovely warmth in his chest, a comfort so grand that he knows it is being pushed into him. Jungkook smiles a bit slyly, but mostly happily. “I can feel you now though,” he says. “And if I lose control again, if I can tell when I’m going to, I’ll try to reach for you to keep me back.”

“Okay,” Taehyung says softly. “But if you cannot, I do not want you to be hard on yourself for it. I will find a way to bring you back to me.”

The mood grows lighter with everything off their chests, leaving only warm feelings inside of them. It feels easier again when Jungkook mumbles, “We should apologize to Jimin…”

“Yeah,” Taehyung chuckles.

They venture out of their bedroom, then through their living quarters. They head toward the living room where they can hear some of their friends. When they enter, Hoseok, Namjoon, and Seokjin offer smiles in greeting as they look them over.

Jimin, however, sits on the couch with his arms crossed, facing forward and refusing to look at them with an upset look on his face. Taehyung tries as hard as he can to not laugh, because he knows Jimin is playing up the pouting and is more than understanding with what happened. He has both experienced and been in the position that Jungkook was in, and knows how their friends have dealt with trying to control them. They have all been through this, so they all understand one another. Especially Jimin, who is perhaps the most empathetic one of the bunch.

Taehyung stands behind the couch and leans down. He wraps his arms loosely around Jimin’s neck from behind. “Hi, Jimin-ah,” he says sweetly.

“Hi.”

He stands before he can turn an already-grumpy Jimin cold from the bitter temperature of his body, and he walks around the couch to sit beside him. Something inside of him flutters when Jungkook sits on the opposite side of Jimin, and he sees his best friend and his fledgling together. The two people he loves most in the world – one of them trying to cozy up to the other so he can win him over again.

Then Taehyung freezes.

He thought it so casually.

It comes off of his lips just as easily so often. My love.

It is one thing to think, as he did earlier, that he just might love Jungkook. It is another to think it so casually, almost going unnoticed because of how natural of a thought it was.

He clears his throat and shakes his head to try to get those thoughts away.

It is not hard because he has never felt so warm watching Jungkook try to force his way into Jimin’s arms like a cuddly cat while Jimin tries as hard as he can to not smile and keep his arms crossed, even as Jungkook tries to yank them apart.

Jungkook is doing a much better job at breaking through Jimin’s pouty exterior than he would be, so he just sits back and watches as slowly, the blank expression on Jimin’s face becomes too hard to maintain and he breaks out into a smile, his eyes squinting closed from the force of it.

“You guys were so mean to me!” Jimin whines, giving Jungkook a run for his money.

“I’m sorryyyyyy,” Jungkook whines back. “But in my defense, I was in Vampire Mode.”

Taehyung snorts while Jimin makes sounds of protest. “You were not in ‘vampire mode’ when you yelled at him, darling,” Taehyung says.

“Oh. Well, still, I’m young!”

“Can’t you just apologize to me?!” Jimin yells, matching the volume of Jungkook’s voice.

Taehyung lets them fake-fight it out while he goes to Namjoon and Seokjin, who are sitting in the tufted chairs beside the window across the living room. Seokjin is in a blue pajama set with a bathrobe and dark fluffy hair, looking the exact opposite to his mate with his studious clothes and blonde shaved head. “Hello,” Taehyung says calmly as his two loves shout at each other while now physically fighting too. He checks to make sure they are still just having fun, and their giggles and laughter do enough to convince him. He turns back to Namjoon and Seokjin. He bows. “I apologize for the stir we caused, and if I was unkind or offended either of you.”

“No apology necessary,” Namjoon says with a kind, reassuring smile. Seokjin nods his agreement, but he doesn’t say anything. He just studies Taehyung. “You handled it very well too.”

“I’ve never been around to see how you deal with the newborns that come here, so I am unsure if what I did was right or would be most effective in that kind of situation.”

“You did well,” Namjoon says again. “It varies from person to person, because there is not one size that fits all in how to deal with a newborn. And you intrinsically know what would be best, since you are his sire. I normally would never suggest trying to speak with them before trying to physically stop them, because by the time you’d reach having to use physical force, it could be too late.”

“It almost was though,” Taehyung says. “He didn’t really hear me.”

Namjoon shakes his head. “That’s not true. You were focused on reaching him, so you weren’t watching his body language or responses outside of that, or you weren’t internalizing the responses. The fact that Jungkook even looked at you is rare, because vampires who are lost in their heads don’t see others as people, really, and just as obstacles to bypass or, sometimes, destroy, if it means getting around them.

“Jungkook looked at you. He saw you as you are, and I would wager that he heard you too. Maybe he wasn’t listening, but he heard you. You reached him enough to make him hold himself back, even if it was only a little.”

“Oh…” Taehyung says. He supposes he wasn’t looking at the small details in Jungkook like someone with a more objective approach would. “But…” He swallows. He tries to hold himself back from feeling those same things again. That lack of feeling that almost settled in once the despair was through with him. “The… the bond though. I tried to control him there, tried to get through to him. But I–I couldn’t find him. It’s like he was no longer there. Lost to me because he was lost to himself too.”

He looks up from his fidgeting hands, and he sees Namjoon and Seokjin glance at each other. Namjoon opens and closes his mouth, then he looks at Seokjin again. A silent conversation passes in just a second, then Namjoon looks back at him. “Tae,” he says. He glances at Seokjin again, but Seokjin has looked back to Taehyung. “Sires and fledglings… They don’t–w-when someone becomes a sire… the sire and their fledgling, they don’t have a b–”

“Sire,” Jungkook calls for him. Taehyung looks over. His fledgling points to Hoseok in the entryway of the living room. “Hoseok and I are going to play video games.”

Taehyung nods. “Okay, darling,” he says. Before Jungkook leaves though, he comes over. Taehyung tracks his movement, then his eyes close when Jungkook kisses the top of his head. He feels their shared warmth, the way it grows when Jungkook kisses his temple right after. “My sweet boy,” Taehyung says. He is the luckiest vampire who has ever lived. He allows Jungkook to ruffle his hair, then his boy disappears with Hoseok, off to the game room.

The spot beside him is then occupied by Jimin, the collar of his shirt askew from fighting with Jungkook. Taehyung turns back to Namjoon and Seokjin. “This isn’t the time,” Namjoon whispers sharply to his mate. It pulls an annoyed look from Seokjin before he looks back over to him.

“If we’re not going to let humans here,” Jimin says, then interjects, “which is totally fine; it’s for the best considering the circumstances – but if we’re not going to let them here, we’ll have to make another hospital run. We only have a couple days’ worth of blood bags left.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Taehyung says. “I am sorry that you all are forced to change your lifestyle and diet because of this.”

“I really couldn't care less,” Seokjin says. The other two nod. “If anything, I’m glad to not have humans here. They’re annoying. I see enough of them when I have to go to the city; I don’t want to have to deal with them at home too.”

“Yeah, agreed,” Jimin mutters.

“Are you sure you guys are not just saying that?” Taehyung asks, because this is the first he is hearing of it. If it were up to him he would have begun sending humans away long ago; he kept them around because it is how his friends seemed to prefer to feed.

Namjoon nods while Jimin says, “I’m sure.” Then, “I’ve always gotten a little jealous seeing Yoongi and Hoseok feeding on humans too… I don’t mind if it’s from blood bags, but seeing them with humans…”

“I am old enough that I really do not taste a difference,” Namjoon shrugs. “And Seokjin doesn’t like humans.”

“And we have Yoongi!” Jimin says. “Yoongi would love to make drinks for everyone if you were ever in the mood for something better.”

Seokjin nods. “Yeah, me too,” he says. “It’d be fun to experiment, and it’d give Yoongi and me a reason to be in the kitchen more often.”

“Well, if you guys are sure,” Taehyung says, “then I would much rather make runs to the hospital than have others in our home. I suppose we should build a tall gate in the forest around the perimeter of the property.”

“I don’t want to trap the animals in or out though…” Jimin says sadly.

That is true (and something his kindhearted Jimin would of course think about). “You’re right,” he says, even though the woodland animals in the forest around them steer very clear of the manor. “We will think of a way. A way to scare the humans as well, so word will get around that they are neither safe nor welcome here.”

He has always been the one sent on hospital visits. He can usually go at any hour of the day to keep suspicions low, and he has gotten good at most things with age. He is the only one who has made the hospital runs successfully without some hiccup along the way. Which is fine; he doesn’t mind going, and it doesn’t take very long. But, “With more blood needed, we will have to start taking from different hospitals around the city, or outside of it. I do not mind doing so at all, but with needing to go in the next couple of days, and Jungkook still being too young to go in public – let alone somewhere densely populated with humans, some in surgery or with open wounds – I would have to go alone. And our bond… it does not allow us to stray too far from one another.” He has tried to hide it, but even the distance between the two of them right now has caused him to feel uneasy, and he is not even fully across the manor. Everything in him has been trying to tug him back to Jungkook, and he has had to resist the pull.

“What happens if you do go far away from each other?” Jimin asks.

“I will–I’ll be right back,” Taehyung says. Now that he has acknowledged it and spoken about it, it is too strenuous to resist. It is a strange sensation, something physical, but something more he cannot place as well. An emotional tug, a mental one that slowly festers into anxiety and unease that so desperately wants to be soothed. He cannot carry on the conversation if he does not go see, now that he has allowed himself to feel that it is there. He rushes out of the living room and to the game room a mere few doors away.

He finds Jungkook and Hoseok sitting on the couch. The lights lining the room follow a rainbow gradient that matches some of the things shown on the television – what looks like a racetrack of a flattened rainbow. There are controllers in their hands as they look at the television, where they are presumably controlling little men and animals driving in little cars. Hoseok is shouting expletives at Jungkook, while Jungkook cackles menacingly.

They are perfectly okay.

Taehyung knew they were, of course, but just–he had to see him. The tug in his chest loosens and allows him to relax, because his fledgling is right here. Taehyung does not bother him; he just walks behind the couch and pets Jungkook’s hair. He watches the smile spread on Jungkook’s face as his eyes stay focused on the television. It is enough, and Taehyung returns back to the living room.

His three friends are all looking at him with amusement. Sheepishly, Taehyung sits down. “Back to what we were speaking of,” he says, quickly continuing because he can sense Jimin’s imminent teasing. “I do not know what happens if there is a considerable distance between us. The first time we sensed it was when Jungkook was only a single day old. I left him to sleep, and was just on the other side of the door to speak with Namjoon. Jungkook woke up due to the distance and came to find me, even though I was only a few feet away. The following day, I went to the kitchen, and Jungkook came to the bedroom to find me again. I was able to be gone for longer, and a little farther away before we needed to find one another again.” He is beginning to grow tense because of the glances Namjoon and Seokjin keep giving each other. He cannot tell what they mean. “And right now, I do not feel as if I have to go to him, but I just–I want to. It feels as if I am being tugged, like I need to be back with him.”

Namjoon nods pensively. Seokjin and Jimin provide no insight other than teasing their friend for this extreme turn of life events for such a crotchety vampire as Namjoon thinks. “It makes sense that as time goes on,” he finally says, “the, um, the bond will allow more distance. I think that–”

“Um, I’ll be right back,” Taehyung interjects. He is in the game room only a second later. Jungkook and Hoseok are in the same spots on the couch, holding the controllers as the screen announces what appears to be some type of brown gorilla, perhaps, as the winner while confetti rains down around it.

“Okay, maybe it’s not cheating, but it’s bad sportsmanship to wait until I’m about to cross the finish line to throw your shells out!” Hoseok yells, impassioned as he undulates his arms in wild movements.

“Oh, I didn’t know you had a guidebook to ethical Mario Kart gaming that I was supposed to have read. You’re just a sore loser.”

“You are a cocky winner!”

The two jump when Taehyung clears his throat. “Is everything alright?”

“Your fledgling is very annoying and childish,” Hoseok reports to him, but Taehyung can tell there is no malice behind it.

“He’s just mad I beat him and ruined his spot on the player board,” Jungkook says with an eye roll. Taehyung does not know what that means. “Everything alright with you?”

Taehyung nods. He reaches out to pet Jungkook’s hair again. Jungkook leans to it, and he can feel the bond purr. “Just wanted to come see you,” he says. “You may continue your games.”

Somehow his friends are able to convey amusement and unamusement at the same time when Taehyung returns. Sheepishly, again, he lowers himself into his chair.

“What is it that you are feeling when you go to see him?” Namjoon asks.

Taehyung is uncertain how to explain it. There has to be records of it that Namjoon has read in his long life of being an academic. Still, he says, “It is not exactly a feeling of unease or anxiousness, but those things begin to creep up after some time. More so, it is akin to a physical feeling. As if you are truly being tugged, and you have to fight against it.”

He moves to stand again before he even realizes he is doing so, but he is forced back down again by a laughing Jimin. “We are never going to get anywhere if you keep leaving!”

“Yes, yes, you are correct,” Taehyung says apologetically, embarrassed.

It is followed with, “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” from Jimin, because his fledgling is now standing at his side.

“Hi,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung looks up at him, warmth spreading to his fingertips. “Hello, little fledgling,” he says. He reaches for Jungkook’s hand, and he kisses the top of it. He feels a pat on the top of his head before Jungkook disappears.

“I’m not saying this to tease,” Jimin says, “but you guys should genuinely work on that…”

Taehyung swallows. Drop his eyes. “Yes, I know.” He cannot have Jungkook right at his side forever. Not only would it be unhealthy to remain glued together, it could potentially be dangerous. There will be moments they will have to be apart – just for his trips to the hospital, for one. And what if there are sudden moments where they will be separated? What is the danger in forced separation? He does not want to think of what those scenarios may be, but he would rather plan for them rather than face the consequences of their arrival.

And he… he isn’t sure what will become of everything once Jungkook is adjusted to his new life and does not need his sire anymore.

“I…” he says quietly. “I know it is selfish of me, but I do not want the bond to break. I know I cannot keep Jungkook tied to me forever, but I–I would like to be selfish and make it so.”

Jimin takes his hand. Says, softly, “But wouldn’t it feel like an even stronger bond if Jungkook stayed after it wasn’t there anymore?”

Taehyung looks at him, probably showing the quiet desperation he feels. “But what if he does not? I–I do not even want to feel the absence in my chest, so what will become of me if he disappears with it too?”

Namjoon hesitantly says, “If I may interject… I don’t think learning to adjust to time and distance between you two will sever the bond. I think the string that ties you two together will just get longer.”

Taehyung hopes that he is right, because he really doesn’t have a choice in the matter. It would be foolish to not train themselves to allow time or distance between them. He cannot keep Jungkook bound to him so closely if he is to be alive for an eternity. Perhaps this is another way to take care of him as his sire. Learning to let him free. There is a long, long way to go before he can truly let Jungkook loose into the world, because he does have a basic responsibility as a sire, not only one who loves him too.

“Yes, we should work on it,” he says, trying to keep the sadness from his tone. It is a selfish thing to feel. “I will speak with him, and we will figure out how to move forward with this and see where we are at in terms of my absence to make a run to the hospital.”

Namjoon nods. “I think that’s a good idea,” he says, with the others nodding too.

“Is there not any information on how other sires and fledglings have done this, within your big library?”

“I–I think that this, well, um–it is personal,” he says. He takes off his glasses to clean the lenses with his shirt. Taehyung recalls meeting Namjoon for the first time and inquiring about them, since their kind do not need glasses. Namjoon told him that he never stopped wearing them, that they remind him of his humanity, that putting them on when he wakes up from a nap or cleaning the lenses throughout the day makes him feel like he is himself, just Namjoon, not a monster. “What works best for you is what you should do.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Taehyung says. “I am going to go speak with Jungkook then. Thank you for your insight. All of you.” He stands and politely bows, receiving his usual teasing. “And Jimin-ah, I am deeply sorry for yelling at you.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Jimin mutters, keeping up the act and doing a poor job of it.

Taehyung exits their living room and heads toward the game room. He can hear the same sounds of the video game from before, and the sounds he is coming to learn Hoseok and Jungkook make when they are together. It is sweet. It brings a certain sense of liveliness to the manor that it did not have before. Hoseok is still so young, the youngest of them all by a lot, until Jungkook came along. It has become apparent now that he has someone so close in age to him. There is a silly immaturity, almost, that shows their age when they are together.

“Hello,” Taehyung says. He takes a seat beside Jungkook.

Neither Hoseok nor Jungkook look at him. Hoseok mumbles some kind of distracted greeting, and Jungkook leans against him as soon as he’s settled in, seeking him out in the same way Taehyung has been.

“What are you two pl–”

“Tae, shut up,” Hoseok says, eyes trained on the screen.

“Well, okay, then,” Taehyung says, sitting back in his seat with a huff. Jungkook is smiling, still looking at the screen. Taehyung does not wish to disturb him or make him lose whatever it is they are playing, so as gently as he can, he starts to pull Jungkook into his arms. Jungkook goes willingly, continuing the game with ease. His smile grows when Taehyung kisses his cheek. It causes his cheeks to become even softer, so Taehyung, of course, must kiss him there again. Then he cannot stop pressing kiss after kiss against his cheek, smiling into them all because Jungkook is smiling and laughing too, not trying to get away and not looking away from the game. Taehyung does not know what he could have done to deserve this, being able to kiss this sweet boy as he pleases, to kiss him so freely without a thought because his fledgling wants to be kissed.

Finally Jungkook sinks fully into his arms. His hold on the controller goes lax as the television plays a new tune of music with the cars on the screen appearing to be doing a victory lap. Hoseok is bouncing excitedly in his seat as he calls for Jimin, presumably to show him that he won. Taehyung pulls Jungkook into his arms more fully and kisses his temple. “Did I cause you to lose, my dear?” he asks. “I did not mean to distract you.”

Jungkook tilts his head up to finally meet his eyes, his gaze softening as a smile stays on his lips. “I don’t mind,” he says. He leans up and kisses Taehyung’s cheek in return. The kiss falls so close to the corner of his lips. He lies his head back down.

“Jungkook, ask Tae to play a video game with us,” Jimin says, who is now in the room without Taehyung realizing he entered.

“Why me?” Jungkook laughs.

“It’s like when you want to have a sleepover with your friend so you make your friend ask your mom,” Hoseok says, making Jungkook laugh and nod. Taehyung and Jimin lock eyes with furrowed eyebrows. They shrug, neither of them really understanding what that means.

“Sire, will you play a video game with us?” Jungkook asks sweetly, doe eyes looking up at him.

Taehyung leans in and touches the tips of their noses together. “I suppose so,” he sighs. It receives cheers from everybody as they all scramble for controllers and wiggle into their spots on the couch. Jungkook hands him a controller. Taehyung takes it, looking down at the plastic in his hands dubiously.

“Here, hold it like this,” Jungkook says, laughter begging to break through in his tone. He takes it from where Taehyung held it between his index fingers and thumbs, and he allows Jungkook to maneuver his hands however he pleases. He presses his palms into the sides to give his thumbs access to press any of the many buttons whose functions he does not know of.

“I’m choosing the race track now,” Jimin says, flitting through different rectangles on the screen until he lands on one he was searching for.

“I knew you were gonna choose the Animal Crossing-themed one,” Hoseok says. “That’s basically cheating because of how many times you’ve raced that track.”

Jimin just giggles menacingly and asks, “Everybody ready?”

“Hey, wait, no,” Jungkook says. “I have to show him what to do.” Taehyung looks at Jungkook, waiting for his direction. Jungkook looks at him softly, shared warmth blooming in their chests. “Okay, so see this button on the right here? With the A on it?” Taehyung looks down at the controller, identifying it. He hums and nods. “That’s what will make your car go. And this joystick over here?” He puts his finger on a black circle on the left, moving it all around. “It’ll steer you around. And–Jimin, just switch it to three players so I can help Tae play, because explaining items and everything is too much at once. I can explain as you guys play.”

“‘kay,” Jimin says, pressing some more buttons on the screen.

“Sorry, darling, I don’t want to ruin your fun,” Taehyung says.

“You didn’t,” Jungkook assures him. He squeezes his thigh, where his hand, Taehyung realizes, is now resting.

“Okay, Tae, pick your character,” Jimin says.

The three others whip their heads over to him, watching him. Taehyung freezes. No one moves. He looks at all three of them, and they all look at him. “Um.”

“You’ve never played Mario Kart before,” Hoseok says, “so you’ve never chosen a character. We want to see who you pick. It says a lot about you.”

“O-Oh… okay…” Taehyung looks at the screen, then down at his controller. “I press this button while pushing this thing around?”

Jimin giggles at him while Hoseok laughs. Jungkook does the same, while kindly explaining, “No, not yet. That’s just when you’re driving. Find who you want to be on the screen and I’ll show you how to select it.”

Taehyung looks at the screen, where several different cartoonish characters are displayed in boxes for him to choose. He does not know who a single one of them is, but he studies each one.

“You guys wanna make a bet on who he chooses?” Jimin asks.

The three of them discuss amongst themselves, but the conversation is lost on Taehyung because he has no idea who they are speaking of. After carefully giving each person and creature their fair due, Taehyung announces, “I have made my decision.”

“See how Mario in the top left has that white box around him?” Jungkook asks.

“The gentleman with the mustache?” he asks.

It sends Hoseok and Jimin into another fit of laughter. Jungkook as well as he says under his breath, “God, you’re fucking cute, sire,” as if he is mad about it. “Yes, that’s Mario. And if you move this around here,” he guides his thumb to the black circle and wiggles it around, “you can see the white box move. That’s how you know who you’ve selected. So move it around until it lands on the character you want.”

Very clumsily, Taehyung makes his way to his selection. He accidentally sends the white box down different rows and columns before carefully and slowly making it to who he has chosen. As soon as he does, Jungkook cheers while Jimin and Hoseok whine and yell.

“Wiggler?!” Jimin shouts.

“You cheated!” Hoseok yells at Jungkook.

“How?!” Jungkook says. “He’s never played before!”

“I don’t know! He’s your sire!”

“Which means he makes sure I don’t go kill people, not confide in me about his Mario Kart preferences!”

Jungkook walks him through picking a vehicle for his yellow creature next, and soon he finds himself at the starting line of a race track beside a sweet-looking lady with orange hair and a crown on her head, and a stout red creature with a white mask on his face.

“Okay, remember what I told you, Tae,” Jungkook says, sounding like he is the coach of a sports team giving his athlete a pep talk. “‘A’ to go, joystick to steer.”

Taehyung nods, looking down at the controller to make sure his thumbs are in the correct places. He finds himself on the edge of the couch, everybody’s suspense transferring over to him as the countdown on the screen starts.

A bell rings, and the cars around him take off. He joins them several seconds later after pushing the button at Jungkook’s gentle guidance. At an upcoming turn, Jungkook rests his finger on top of Taehyung’s left thumb and steers into the curve for him. “Oh, oh, I see, I understand now,” Taehyung says, nodding. Jungkook lets go but stays close, but just because he seems to like cozying up to him, not because he wants to be there at his aid.

Taehyung finds himself smiling as he plays, admiring the different things he sees on screen. The puffy pink cherry blossom trees, a white and black dog beneath one of them, strumming a guitar. The charming small town he had been driving through fades off into a shore, with waves on the beach crashing into the sand, two hedgehogs waving to him from a storefront. “This is quite pleasant,” he says as he drives. “All of the villagers are so kind to me. Why are you three laughing?”

“Tae, you don’t have to drive so properly,” Jungkook laughs. “You don’t have to stay on the right side of the road.”

“But that is the correct way to drive,” he says. “I do not want to get in troub–wah?!” Suddenly his car is sent up high into the air. It bounces in place several times before allowing him to drive again. “What happened?! What was that? Did I do something wrong? Is my character hurt?”

“You guys!” Jungkook says. “He’s just getting used to this!”

“All is fair in love and war,” Jimin says.

“Your character is okay,” Jungkook assures him. “Do you see those boxes up ahead? Drive into one.”

“But I don’t want to crash and cause my character more harm.”

“You’re making it so hard to let you play,” Jungkook says, somehow wiggling closer. “You won’t crash, sire. You’ll see.” Reluctantly, Taehyung drives into one of the iridescent boxes and is relieved to find that it pops like a bubble rather than making him crash. “These are things you can shoot at the other players to hit them and make them slow down or lose their lead.”

“Oh, but that doesn’t seem just…”

“Jimin threw a shell at you, which is what you got, so you can throw one back at him.”

“Oh, well I suppose if he did it first… But I do not want to harm his character. It appears too small to be able to withstand any violence.”

“Tae, please stop talking because I might explode and I’m pretty sure Jimin and Hoseok can’t breathe.” Which sounds correct because of the squeaking emanating from his friends. “Move your finger back here to this trigger, and press down.” Taehyung follows his fledgling’s orders, and a green and white turtle shell is released from the front of his vehicle. It races forward and disappears, presumably to search for someone to collide with.

“This is quite fun,” Taehyung says. “Wait, are we done playing?”

Jimin and Hoseok are sitting back with their controllers in their laps, watching him as if he is their entertainment. “We reached the finish line,” Jimin says.

Taehyung looks back at the screen and sees a wooden archway decorated with leaves and various fruits. “Oh!” he says. “This is where we started. Okay, I am here now too. That was fun. Why is my character still driving?” An announcement on the side of the screen informs him that he has completed lap one of three.

He presses his lips together as he realizes what has happened, and his friends laugh. Knowing he will not be progressing out of last place, he takes his time and enjoys the drive. He notices so many new things like this: a pretty waterfall with a wooden bridge stretching across it, an angry-looking mole with a hardhat and a pick axe sticking out of the sand at the beach, so many cloud-like trees growing various kinds of fruit. Finally, several minutes later, Taehyung leans back when he has completed the race.

“Well, I would like it to be acknowledged that I did not crash my vehicle once,” he says.

“Because you were driving like an old man following traffic laws!”

Taehyung shrugs and sets the controller down. He looks over to the fledgling at his side, who has been silent for the past couple of minutes. He would think Jungkook might have fallen asleep, but their eyes lock together. The corner of Jungkook’s lips are tilted up just slightly as he watches him with a delicate, gentle softness, curled up beside him.

“Shall we go to our room and get ready for bed?” Taehyung asks. “Daybreak will arrive soon.”

They bid a good night and good morning to their friends and retire to their living quarters. As Jungkook looks around him – at the art on the walls, through the doorways they pass – he asks, “Did you build this house? Have you always lived here with everybody?”

“I did not build it,” Taehyung says. He only realizes his hand is somehow in Jungkook’s when Jungkook raises it to kiss the top. “Such a gentleman,” he giggles. He does not recall a time he has ever giggled so much before. “I have always gone on long, long walks in the night, for as long as I can recall. During one of those nights, I happened upon the manor. It was abandoned – perhaps a few steps beyond abandoned, because of what disrepair it was in.” He furrows his eyebrows. “I… I do not recall where I was living at the time. I believe somewhere far from here, and I wanted somewhere far to live from wherever I was trying to escape.”

Jungkook plops down onto their mattress. Taehyung distractedly stands in front of him, trying to remember. “Does your memory still get bad the older you get like it does for humans?”

Taehyung shakes his head. “We are usually able to recall every moment of our lives, for better or for worse. I just… it is different for me. There is time that is lost to me, for one reason or another, and I do not know what my life was like during those times. Perhaps it is for the better…”

He is pulled down onto the bed. He is maneuvered just how Jungkook would like him, then has a clingy little fledgling that he believes he loves so dearly lying across him. “Anyway, I found the manor abandoned. I could have worked on restoring it myself, since all I had is time, and I have the strength and lack of fatigue for it too. But things of that nature are not something I wished to spend my time on, so I hired others to do the job.

“I believe it took a couple of seasons to complete the job – both because of how much needed to be fixed, and because I did not allow any type of road to be constructed through the forest, so it was difficult to get supplies there without a vehicle. But miraculously, the workers found exactly what they needed on the property at the start of each day.” Jungkook snickers. “I lived here alone for a few years shy of a half-century. Then one winter day, there was a polite knock at my door. Who do you think that was?”

“Well, you said ‘polite,’ so I think probably Namjoon.”

“Indeed,” Taehyung says. He recalls that night, finding a strange man on his porch. He was dressed very properly, waiting there politely. Taehyung recalls never having seen a vampire so close without one of them attacking the other. But Namjoon stood there calmly, fogged-up glasses perched confusingly on his nose, with a large book beneath his arm. “He asked for a place to stay for the night. He did not state why, nor did I ask. I don’t think there even was an explicit reason; maybe he just wanted the comfort of shelter, and the manor always emanated a warm glow from the windows, as if it weren’t the home of a monster.”

Jungkook rolls off of him. He pulls him onto his side so they are facing one another. Taehyung just lets Jungkook move him every which way he desires, going willingly. “I don’t like how often you call yourself a monster…”

Taehyung shrugs, thinking nothing of the word. “Is it not true? It is what I have been called, the name I deserve from the way I devastated villages, terrorized humans no matter where I went. I have been called a serial killer, a murderer, more names than I can recall. And they all fit who I am. What I am.”

“I just… I just don’t think that, sire. I mean, I-I know you did things, but I don’t think that’s who you are.”

“I hope you are correct,” Taehyung says. He reaches out and brushes a lock of hair aside, tucks it behind Jungkook’s ear. As he runs his finger down the shell of his ear, a brief moment of nostalgia appears. He is not sure why, because there has not been a moment in his life to be nostalgic over. Déjà vu perhaps, but he would have never touched anyone so softly as he has Jungkook.

“What happened next?” his fledgling asks.

Taehyung trails a finger down the side of Jungkook’s neck, then along his collarbone before allowing it to rest on the bed. “Namjoon was the first time I enjoyed the company of another vampire, and we got along so well that he just never left. Years later, after coming back from a trip to the city, he brought someone home with him.”

“Seokjin?”

Taehyung hums and nods. “I had heard talk of Seokjin from him. Not very much, though, because he was a human when Namjoon began speaking of him.”

Jungkook’s eyes go wide. “He was a human? While Namjoon was a vampire?”

Taehyung nods. “I told him that he was foolish. For falling for a human and thinking anything but tragedy could become of it.” His breath hitches, because it feels as though he were hit in the chest. He recalls feeling that way all that time ago. The way he threw the words at Namjoon, and how pained they sounded. He clears his throat and carries on. “Despite everything I cruelly said to him, Namjoon did not stop pursuing him, nor did he stop telling me about him. And despite the reservations I had, it was very sweet, the way he spoke of him. Almost like that of a teenager with a crush. He had taken him on dates, spent all the time he could with him. I do not know the sequence of events that led to him carrying Seokjin’s body to the manor – bloodied and thrashing because he had been bitten; I only know that Namjoon was not the one who did it. He aided him through his transformation, and it is what began Namjoon’s work in helping others. He found that he was good at it, because he is so intelligent and kind, but it was mostly driven by watching his loved one struggle. And after the two of them had been here for around a decade, another person showed up at my doorstep.”

“Jimin?” Jungkook guesses.

Taehyung shakes his head. “Yoongi. He asked if he could stay here for the morning, to evade the coming dawn. He never left either, and many decades later, Hoseok appeared too. I found myself amassing stray vampires like the cats who find themselves here as well. It was more difficult now though, because Hoseok had only been recently turned when he sought out help. Namjoon aided him through those difficult years.”

“What about Jimin?” Jungkook asks. “Isn’t he older than Yoongi and Hoseok?”

“He is. He appeared one night as well, many years later. He did not wait for his invitation to make this his home, nor did he wait for one to even enter the manor; he just stepped inside when the door was opened after he knocked. I would have offered this as a permanent place of residence if he had not claimed it himself, because we found friendship in one another right away. And he found a different kind of love with Yoongi and Hoseok around a decade later.”

“Do you like having so many people here?”

“I do,” Taehyung says, a faint smile on his face. “It can sometimes be overwhelming, but everyone is respectful of each other’s boundaries and the need for space and time apart. But I do not regret opening my home to the others.” It is undoubtedly what saved him. Namjoon’s arrival shed the smallest amount of light on his life alone in the dark, cold manor. Every new arrival only gave his life more purpose. He would not be here if it weren’t for the five of them, he is certain of it.

He hesitates. There are conversations they need to have. Many of them are difficult and could cause him to tremble in fear of what the answers and outcomes may be, but they cannot avoid them. He reminds himself that he is Jungkook’s sire. It is his purpose to ensure his happiness and help him achieve it, even if the way to get there might kill him. So he asks, “Is this somewhere you would like to stay too?”

Jungkook searches him. Taehyung allows him to. He looks deeply into his eyes, trying to find something. “Can I?” he asks quietly, a hint of fear hidden in his tone.

Taehyung runs his fingers through Jungkook’s hair. He tries not to show the overwhelming relief in case it might sway any future choices Jungkook might want to make. “I would love nothing more than for this to be your home too, for as long as you would allow me to have you.” Jungkook beams, as if he truly did not know if he was welcome. “With every new person that has shown up here, I constructed a new wing of the house for them, to allow them some privacy and a home of theirs within the home. Is… is that something you wish for me to do for you as well?”

“Oh…” Jungkook says. Taehyung is able to feel the drop of something strange in his chest. Fear, perhaps, or sadness, he isn’t certain. “Well, no.”

A slow smile spreads on Taehyung’s face. Jungkook matches it. “No?”

“No,” he shrugs. “I want to stay with you.” He says it so easily. “If you don’t want that and want to give me an area of the house, then okay, but no, I want to stay with you.”

“A-Are you sure?” Taehyung asks, searching his face this time. Jungkook nods. “Oh, w-well, I want you to stay here too.”

“Okay, good,” Jungkook says, nodding his head once. “Glad we cleared that up.”

Taehyung runs his fingertips down Jungkook’s cheek. “I have done nothing to deserve a boy as sweet as you,” he says quietly.

“You don’t have to deserve me,” Jungkook says, moving closer. “I’m here, and I want to be here with you. And you want me here with you too, and that’s enough.”

Taehyung moves closer, and he tilts Jungkook’s head down to press a kiss to his forehead. “Knowing that now,” he says, “we should have a discussion.”

“O-Okay…”

Taehyung takes Jungkook’s hand. He presses it over his beating heart, keeping it there. “Nothing bad, my darling.” He takes a breath. “The bond that we have.” Jungkook nods. “I think we should work on… on training ourselves to allow some distance between us.” Jungkook’s face falls. He does not speak. “Not because I want any space from you, my love. If I could, I would keep you right by my side and never allow you to leave. But I think it would be better for us to find a way to resist the pull, don’t you think?” He can tell Jungkook is growing uncomfortable, nervous at the thought of it or thinking of implications that he isn’t saying, as if Taehyung could ever want distance from his little fledgling. He brushes his fingers down Jungkook’s face again. “I am thinking merely of safety reasons, my love. What if a time comes where we will have to be apart? I am not sure what would happen if we are forced away from each other, and I don’t want to be unprepared and have harm befall you that I could have prevented. And it is necessary for little reasons too, like I will have to soon make a visit to the hospital, and I cannot bring you with me.” Jungkook still won’t say anything, and he won’t look at him either. Taehyung tilts his head up and forces them to lock eyes. “My darling,” he says softly. “You must know the way I love you.” Jungkook’s lips part, something blooming in his chest. Taehyung realizes he has not said it before now. Jungkook has to have been able to feel it, or maybe he had gotten so used to it just as Taehyung had – already so used to the feeling that had created a home there that he did not think to put a name to it until it happened on its own. “Please do not think I want to live even a moment with you away from me. Namjoon said to think of it as the string that binds us together just getting longer. It will still be there, always, if we wish for it to be. And I do, my darling, I will braid us together and knit and quilt and form the tightest of knots to keep us together if it is what you wish for too.”

“Will the bond ever go away?” Jungkook asks quietly.

“I am not sure,” Taehyung says. “I am afraid I do not know too much about sire and fledgling bonds. Or anything at all, really.”

“Then how do you know trying to stretch it won’t break it?” He sounds so scared. Taehyung did not know it meant as much to Jungkook as it does to him.

“Do you not want it to break?” Jungkook shakes his head. “Ever?” More vulnerably, he shakes his head again. Taehyung nearly trembles with relief. “May I ask why, my love?”

He watches Jungkook swallow. Jungkook is looking at his lips to avoid his eyes, because his own are starting to glisten with tears. “I don’t want to lose you again,” he whispers.

“You will not,” Taehyung says resolutely. “It will always be us. Even if the bond were to disappear, it will always be us.” He rests his hand against Jungkook’s chest. “But I will always be here too.” He wipes away the few stray tears from Jungkook’s face. He flicks under his chin because it always makes him smile, and this time is no different. Then Taehyung realizes what he said. “‘Again’?”

“Huh?” Jungkook says as he wipes his nose.

“You said ‘again.’ You don’t want to lose me again.”

“Oh.” Jungkook blinks. “Did I?” Taehyung nods. “Oh. I guess I was just emotional. I don’t want to lose you.”

There is something strange inside of Taehyung. It feels as though it is that way so often lately. Something reaching, but he is not sure what it is. So he reaches his arms out and pulls Jungkook into them. “You will not lose me,” he assures him. “Are you nervous that it is the bond that is keeping me here?”

“No,” Jungkook says quietly as he shakes his head.

“Your confidence is lovely to behold,” Taehyung says sincerely. Answering so brazenly, truthfully, and easily that he does not want separate rooms, that he does not want the bond to break, that he does not believe he is valued simply because they are bound together. He hopes that some of Jungkook’s self-assuredness will become his own as well, because he does not hold the same confidence that he does. He is too prone to worry, too easy to convince that he does not deserve this and if it were to leave, it would make sense, even if Jungkook says otherwise. “Are you hungry, darling?”

“Not really,” Jungkook says.

“Really? You have not fed since this morning.”

Jungkook shrugs. “I mean, I wouldn’t say no if you offered, but I’m not really hungry.”

So much of Jungkook and his life as a fledgling is an enigma. Taehyung shouldn’t even be able to hold his calm, cuddly fledgling like this. He should not even be able to be contained yet, let alone not feeling like feeding, when that should be all he wants to do. Perhaps he has special venom, but he thinks he really just has a special boy.

Jungkook leans back and looks at him. “What about you? It’s been… I don’t know, over a week since you fed?”

“Yes, I suppose I have been getting kind of hungry…” he says. That is definitely downplaying it, because he is probably only another day away from ravenous.

Jungkook sits up, making Taehyung whine when he takes his physical warmth with him. Jungkook giggles at the sound. Perhaps he really is rubbing off on him. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks sadly.

Taehyung sits up too. “I just–I don’t know. It feels like I cannot ask if I can just drink your blood. You are my fledgling, and you are also just someone. I do not feel comfortable asking that of you…”

“Do you think it’s bad when I ask you?”

“Of course not.”

“I want you to ask me too,” Jungkook says. “You could honestly even just attack me like I’ve attacked you several times.”

Taehyung chuckles. “I will not attack you, but will you allow me to drink from you, my love?” He tries not to wince. The question makes him feel so bare. He takes Jungkook’s hand and softly kisses his wrist. Jungkook nods, looking almost hypnotized as he speaks against his wrist. “Do you mind where I do it? Your wrist or your neck?” Jungkook shakes his head. “I will drink from your wrist then. Would you like me to numb it when I bite?” Jungkook shakes his head. “Oh? Are you sure?” Jungkook nods. Taehyung laughs. “Will you answer with your words? I miss your pretty voice.”

Jungkook pokes him in the cheek. “You’re a flirt.”

Taehyung smiles and kisses his wrist again. “No, I am just truthful to you, and you are so lovely that it colors all of my words.” He tilts his head down and smells Jungkook’s wrist. He smells so delicious, so mouth-watering, so different from anyone he has ever known or passed by before. He allows himself to smell him the way he tried to avoid when he used to watch him sleep on the park bench. He looks up at Jungkook through his eyelashes and spots a blush. “You smell wonderful, darling. I am going to bite now. If it hurts and you would like my venom, please tell me, okay?”

Jungkook nods. “Okay.”

Taehyung kisses Jungkook’s wrist again. A long press of his lips as he holds Jungkook’s gaze. Then he slides the sharp points of his fangs into his fledgling. Jungkook does not even flinch. His eyes stay locked on Taehyung’s as Taehyung starts to drink, never looking away.

Taehyung allows his mouth to fill with blood. The taste of him is intoxicating as soon as it touches his tongue. He forgets he has to swallow, only remembers when his blood is about to slide from his mouth and down his chin as if he were a fledgling himself. As he swallows a mouthful, a whimper comes from high in his chest. It tastes just as delicious as it has always smelled. It is even more stirring knowing this is his fledgling he is allowed to feed from. His eyes squeeze shut. But when Jungkook says, “Open your eyes,” he listens.

Taehyung finds himself moving closer. He keeps Jungkook inside of his mouth as he feeds. Jungkook leans back, giving his sire space to clumsily seat himself on his lap. He sits back on his thighs, and Jungkook’s free hand slides beneath his shirt. It presses against his back, the warmth of his body heat making Taehyung moan as he takes another drink from him.

“Sire,” Jungkook sighs. He sounds pleased. Taehyung slides his fangs out and licks the wounds closed. He intends to move closer to bite his neck next, but he is stopped by Jungkook. “No. Take my other wrist. I want to be able to see you.” Taehyung swallows a whimper and rushes to listen, wanting to hear what Jungkook will say when he does, when he listens and is good and obeys his fledgling. He takes his other arm and sinks his teeth into his wrist, allowing his mouth to fill with blood rather than pulling it from him. He moans against him when Jungkook’s other hand runs up and down his leg as he says, “Good, sire. Good sire.” Taehyung’s eyes squeeze shut because of the praise from the one he loves, but he opens them straight away before Jungkook can tell him to. “Your eyes look so pretty like this.” Taehyung is sure that red has swallowed the brown, while Jungkook’s remain dark as he watches him partially in curiosity, but mostly with love.

Because Taehyung knows that’s what that is. Even if Jungkook has not said it, Taehyung is certain Jungkook loves him. He instills in him a confidence too, he supposes.

“Am I feeding my sire well?” Jungkook asks softly. Taehyung nods. He is trying to drink slowly so as to not hurt him, but it is so difficult when he just wants more of Jungkook in any way he can take it. “You don’t have to hold yourself back, baby.”

Taehyung freezes. He looks at Jungkook, eyes widening a fraction. Blood spills from his mouth. Jungkook wipes it away for him, then he smears it along Taehyung’s bottom lip.

B-Baby?

Baby.

W-Well, he does suppose he could be Jungkook’s baby.

Taehyung swallows the mouthful of blood before he chokes, then he slides out his fangs and licks the wounds closed. He licks his lips as his fangs pull back. He sits on Jungkook’s lap, breathless.

Jungkook’s other hand slides beneath his shirt. He presses both palms against his lower back, the warmth almost making Taehyung lightheaded. He allows himself to fall forward onto Jungkook, resting his head on his neck. “I was really cold before I met you,” he says quietly. “I couldn’t touch anybody without them needing to move away a second later. I couldn’t let Jimin hug me for more than a few moments. When I took a shower, the hot water turned cold almost as soon as it hit me, and I banished all of the steam that could have at least warmed me.

“But a few weeks ago, you pulled me onto you because we were apart, and you said you were cold. And not only did you not push me away a few moments later, but it made you warmer. And I could feel warmth too, for the first time in so, so long.”

“Why don’t we go to sleep then, and I’ll hold you the whole time?” Jungkook asks. “Did you feed enough?”

Taehyung nods, eyes closed. It has been nice to sleep with Jungkook. He had gotten so used to not sleeping since it is not needed, but Jungkook has clung onto this human habit, and it has made Taehyung feel more human too. It will feel even nicer when he feels so full from feeding; he allows the blood to make him feel something akin to sleepy.

They venture under the covers. Before Taehyung can even get settled in, he finds himself in Jungkook’s arms. He is tucked into his side with his arm and leg over him, head burrowing into the crook of his neck. “I can’t imagine you ever feeling cold when you feel like this to me,” Jungkook says, holding him so close. “Do you still feel cold to the others?”

“I don’t know… Everyone has gotten so used to not touching me that I haven’t been able to catch anyone’s reactions if their hands naturally leave me a second later.”

“Well if you ever need the warmth, you can just find me. I’ll probably already be right next to you anyway though.”

Taehyung chuckles. He tilts his head up and kisses Jungkook’s jaw. “I hope so.”

Chapter Text

The first time they attempt to stretch the bond, it does not go well.

Jungkook had been reluctant at every mention of it, so Taehyung decided to wait a few days to hopefully try to convince him that whether the bond is tightly wound or it has some wiggle room, or even if it is not there at all, Taehyung will be there. He has told him in so many combinations of words that the bond is not what is keeping him here, that if it went away, he would keep Jungkook by his side and seek him out just as desperately.

When Jungkook seemed willing to possibly believe him, Taehyung decided to start, because hopefully seeing it for himself would reassure him more than he can. Jungkook is so confident and self-assured in so many other things – namely how much Taehyung treasures him – but with this in particular, he is so unsure. Taehyung understands, because if the bond were to go away, he is not sure how he would be able to live with the emptiness either.

“We are just going to be across the manor, darling,” Taehyung says softly. He brushes his fingertips down Jungkook’s cheek as Jungkook physically clings to him. He continues the motion, trailing his fingertips up to his temple, down to his jaw, then back up again. “We will be in the same house. Think of it in the same way you do when we shower in separate bathrooms.”

“But the whole time I’m showering I’m trying to rush through to get back to you.”

Jungkook speaks so freely. He never hesitates or shows that he might be ashamed for the way he thinks or feels, and it is so clear in the things he says that others might think twice about sharing. It is so lovely, to both have such a clingy boy, and for Jungkook to not try to pretend that he isn’t.

“You will still be able to seek me out, my love,” Taehyung says. He brushes a lock of hair behind his ear. They recently received haircuts, and Jungkook’s has been trimmed into such a wispy, wavy, shaggy style that Taehyung loves. It is still quite long, and Taehyung suspects he kept it that way because of how much he loves when his sire pets him. Taehyung’s hair was shortened only enough to not be so fluffy and to not fall so thickly into his eyes. Taehyung intended to cut it shorter so he would not need another haircut so soon, but Jungkook forbade him because he did not want the grey streak by his temple to be cut short.

“If it gets to be too much and you need to be with me, you can,” Taehyung continues. “I will still be here. I will not be hidden away or trying to escape from you. You can come to me if you need to. I will be here. And you will have fun too. It will just be like any other day, playing video games with Hoseok and Jimin. I will just be in the library with Namjoon. I will just be across the house.”

“But the house is big…” Jungkook says quietly. God, it is hurting Taehyung’s heart. To be wanted so much that the thought of parting is painful.

“It is, but my little fledgling is fast, aren’t you?”

“I’m really fast…”

Taehyung might die. He was given a beating heart again, and Jungkook might make it stop. “Why don’t we test it out then, hm? You go to the game room, and I will go to the library. You can come to me and see how easy it is, and I will do the same for you.”

“Okay…”

Before they part, Taehyung takes Jungkook’s face into his hands. “My darling boy,” he says softly. He presses a kiss to his forehead. He gives each of his cheeks one as well, and he feels Jungkook grow calmer through their bond. “Now let’s go. I will see you in a few moments.”

Taehyung leaves quickly so they can pull off the bandage, even though this isn’t even the full trial.

When he arrives to his library, Namjoon – no doubt able to hear their conversation – says, “I think this is a good idea. Just hearing how you two are, it’s good to try to work through that a little bit.”

“I hope so…” Taehyung says. He does not say more, because suddenly Jungkook is in the room with them. They smile at each other. “See? That was very easy, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

“Now how about you go back to the game room, and you can call for me. You will see that I can hear you, and you will see how quickly I will come to you.”

“Okay…” Jungkook says.

He disappears, and Taehyung waits for his call. It isn’t until around thirty seconds later, because Jungkook probably wanted to see that Taehyung could truly hear him and was not bluffing by coming the moment he left. Just a moment after his call, Taehyung is in the game room, where Jungkook sits on the couch with their friends (and who they have discovered have become Jungkook’s best friends, as Taehyung would have been able to predict would be).

“See?” Taehyung says. “Easy peasy.” He tilts his head to the side, eyebrows furrowing. “That is a phrase, correct?”

Jungkook and Hoseok both giggle. “I haven’t heard someone say that in forever,” Hoseok says.

“You will not even know I am away,” Taehyung says. The last time they were apart while Jungkook was playing video games, they were a mere few doors away from each other (and even that was difficult). This time, it is across the entire manor, which is more of a struggle. He is almost as reluctant to do any of this as Jungkook is, but one of them has to be the confident one to be able to comfort and reassure the other, and he does not mind being that person. So he says, “You will be distracted with having fun.” Jungkook makes a vague noise of suspicion. Taehyung ruffles his hair. “I will be in my library now. Have fun, my darling.” With another noise of vague unhappiness, Taehyung leaves him behind with their friends.

He knows they are being very dramatic and making this into a much bigger deal than it should even be close to being, but no one is able to feel what it is like to work against the bond. They do not feel the physical pull they have to resist that does not give them a reprieve, feeling like half of each breath is stolen. They cannot feel the anxiety and unease the distance instills in them, the slight fear that looms in the corner, not letting them pretend it isn’t there. It is not merely missing each other, or preferring each other’s presence over the absence of it, or a clinginess they want to indulge in.

And with all of it is the fear of the other being gone. It is the need to soothe themselves by going to check that the other is still there, that they are safe, that there is someone on the other side of the bond and that they are not alone. That I will not be left without the other half of me again, something in Taehyung whispers.

It will be okay. Jungkook is just across the manor, and they are both being looked after by their friends. Jungkook is safe. He is with their friends.

Namjoon, the kind friend that he is, does his best to distract him too. Taehyung welcomes the distraction, but he makes himself enjoy his time as more than that, because it has been a while since he has been able to spend an evening alone with his friend. He misses their time spent together. It was only him and Namjoon together for a very long time, and it created a bond of their own, one of a lasting friendship. He has always found solace in Namjoon, and it is no different tonight. It is nice to spend a calm, quiet evening together when it was once what they were so used to.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to read this for ages,” Namjoon says. He holds up a book from the piles they are organizing. “Did you like it?”

“I did,” Taehyung nods. “It was a bit dense and slow at times, but I know that is something you enjoy, so I think it will suit you. You may borrow it, if you’d like.”

“Thank you,” Namjoon says. He sets the book aside, where it will surely create a new pile that will be the books Namjoon is taking from him.

Taehyung’s library has gotten quite backed up over the years. It has been in desperate need of some organization, because, rather than finding ways to make space, he instead started to create stacks of books on the floor or on the side tables. It then led to his library feeling like less of a library and more like an anxiety-inducing storage space. He misses using his library for its intended purpose, because he always found it to be a cozy space. They are finally tackling the problem this evening. As Taehyung looks through his shelves of books to identify the ones he did not like and would be willing to part with, Namjoon sorts through the many stacks piled around the space to find places for them to go. Beneath this mess akin to an old used bookstore one has to try their best to walk through carefully lest they knock down a single pile of books and they rest all go tumbling, is quite a beautiful library. It is all dark wood with bookcases built into the walls, even a rolling ladder to reach those at the top as if they were in a fairytale. There is a grand fireplace with comfortable tufted chairs, even a writing desk. A beautiful red rug is laid over the wood floors, and Taehyung spots cat hair woven into the fibers, meaning there must be a cat hidden somewhere in here. Windows along the wall overlook the manor gardens – or they would if there were not more messes blocking them from view. Taehyung should perhaps consider an expansion to his library, because he reads far too much to be able to keep up with such a mess.

They work in comfortable silence, or they talk about the books they see if any catches their attention. They discuss ones they have both read, or Namjoon asks about some that he finds. Many are added onto his growing pile to be taken to his own library, where they will most likely inevitably remain because his friend has been known to be forgetful and will not remember that anything is to be returned.

Taehyung checks the time on the grandfather clock tucked in the corner, feeling pleased at how smoothly things are going along. Then he sees that only ten minutes have passed.

The clock must be slow, he tells himself, because he is certain that it has been at least half an hour, if not a full one. However a glance at the watch on Namjoon’s wrist confirms that it has not been very long at all since he has seen his fledgling.

He does not know how he will manage this.

He has been trying desperately to ignore the bond. He and Jungkook agreed that they would do that. He so badly wants to reach for it to see how Jungkook is feeling. Feeling any unease from him, though, which he is probably feeling just like Taehyung is, will make it impossible to resist finding him to make it go away. He turns back to his task to try to distract himself.

He thinks of something because of it though, and asks, “Namjoon-ah, may I look through your library sometime soon as well? I would like to pick through what literature you have on sires and fledglings. And I am sure you have amassed past journals and records from either party through the years. I would like to read what others have written about this process.” Namjoon remains silent for several moments. Taehyung turns to look and finds him distractedly looking down at the pile of books he is grabbing from. “If you do not wish for me to rustle through your library, that is okay with me, and I take no offense.”

“It–it’s not that,” Namjoon says. Taehyung watches him swallow, and he begins to grow nervous. Namjoon finally meets his eyes. He searches him. “Taehyung… I have poured through everything I have on the topic. I have even gone out to gather more things that I can read, because I wanted to help you, since I have never been able to talk to fledgling and sire at once.” That makes Taehyung ache, having seen up close what it is like for a fledgling when they are turned. It has been customary for as far back as he can remember that sires do not remain with their fledglings; sires are not even spoken of, because there is simply the vampire who is responsible for one’s transformation, and that is all they are. It is as it was for him, and for all of his friends. They are humans who are turned for one reason for another, and then left. Sires are not sires; they are merely the vampires who turn a human and leave them to carry on and figure things out themselves. It is why Namjoon has started the work he does, and why there are so many who seek him out, because fledglings do not have sires.

He knows that someone like him is quite rare because of all of it, but still, he is not the only one. Otherwise the concept of a sire would not exist at all, and would rather be called… a source, or something of the sort.

“That can’t be right,” he says. “There have to be records of sires and fledglings somewhere.”

“There are,” Namjoon says. “I have a lot. Journals and letters. Historical records, literature, even fictional novels written by sire or fledgling or a daydreaming vampire. I have a lot of material, and I’ve read through it all.”

“Then what is the problem?” Taehyung asks.

“There have been writings about bonds between two people that I have read, however they are very, very few and far between. But of the thousands upon thousands of pages I have read on anything even vaguely related the topic,” Namjoon says. He hesitates. “It… i-it exists in writing between two people, but between a sire and a fledgling, not anywhere has there been record of a b–”

“Tae!” a broken voice calls out.

A chill runs through Taehyung while cold panic drips down his spine. He drops the books in his hand and rushes across the manor to the game room. Jimin and Hoseok are speaking calmly as Taehyung enters, not turning to look at him while they speak as if they are talking to a child or an animal they are trying to calm down. And they might as well be, because Jungkook is perched on the television stand in the corner of the room. His fangs are out and his eyes are red as he stares down Jimin and Hoseok, who have clearly been trying to contain him and calm him down. Jungkook shows no hint of listening to them, only a deadly warning in his predatory gaze.

They all snap their heads over when Taehyung speaks. “Jungkook-ah, darling,” he says softly. He takes a slow step closer. He makes sure his hands are visible, and his approach is slow.

“Tae, I wouldn’t–” Jimin starts to say, but it’s cut off by a dangerous hiss from his feral fledgling.

“It is okay,” Taehyung says to them both. He takes another measured step closer to Jungkook. He slowly reaches a hand out as he moves closer again. “My sweet little fledgling. It is okay. Your sire is here.”

He now stands in front of Jungkook. Jungkook still watches him from his crouched position, red eyes and deadly fangs reflecting the colored lights in the room. “May I touch you, darling?” Taehyung asks. He reaches his hand out further. Jungkook watches it, looking like he does not know whether to attack or not. Taehyung can see the curiosity in him as he remains not fully himself.

Finally, Taehyung’s hand lands gently on Jungkook’s cheek. Jungkook flinches, but Taehyung does not take it away. Instead, he brings his other hand to his other cheek. He tilts Jungkook’s head up, forcing him to look at him even though he hisses through it. He can sense, though, that it is one of confused defense, rather than a warning.

Despite knowing he should not be so close to him, Taehyung leans in. He touches the tips of their noses together. He huffs a laugh when Jungkook scrunches his nose – a gesture so cutely at odds with his terrifying nature that has taken over. He presses a kiss to Jungkook’s forehead before he presses his forehead there too. He gently brushes his thumbs back and forth over the dark veins beneath Jungkook’s eyes as he whispers, “My darling, I know you are in there. Come back to me, sweetheart.” He tilts his chin up and kisses Jungkook’s cheek. He runs a hand down and gently presses his thumb on Jungkook’s fang. “Why don’t we put these away, hm? No need to have your cute little fangs out right now.” He hears the faintest of grumbles from Jungkook because of his words, which means he is more in reach than before.

Against all better judgment, Taehyung recklessly slides his thumbs into this rabid, powerful vampire’s mouth. He begins to gently rub his gums in the way he has done almost every night to soothe the pain for his teething fledgling. As he presses down in gentle circles, he watches his fangs disappear as Jungkook’s eyes flutter closed. A growl emanates from his chest, but it is one done halfheartedly in warning as he cannot help but succumb to the blissful feeling. It makes Taehyung laugh, watching this violent predator give himself over to the feeling, no more than a feral cat allowing itself to be pet despite so much hissing in warning.

“Jungkookie, darling,” Taehyung whispers. “You can come back. I have not left you, my love. I am right here.”

Jungkook’s eyes slowly open. He looks up at him, looking like he is half asleep in the way he gets when his fangs are massaged. He is still not fully here though, just a feral vampire allowing himself some care and compassion.

“It is me, my love. Your sire is here. Your Taehyung is here.” He takes one of Jungkook’s hands, and he kisses his palm before resting it on his own cheek. “I am here. You are not alone.”

With every slow blink, the red steadily fades from Jungkook’s irises, darkening back to his beautiful deep brown. Finally, Jungkook says, quietly, “S-Sire?”

Taehyung hums and nods. “Yes, my love. I am right here.” He watches Jungkook’s eyes fill with tears. He brushes them away when they fall. “You are not alone. Never, my love. Never. I am right here.” Jungkook sniffles and nods. “Let’s get you out of this position. Can’t be too comfortable.” He helps Jungkook move out of his crouch to stand on the ground again. He steadies him with a hold on his hips.

“That was really good, Tae,” Namjoon says. It makes him jump and remember that they have an audience.

“Come on, let’s go to our room, sweetheart,” Taehyung says to Jungkook. He walks toward the door with him because he can tell that his fledgling is embarrassed.

“Aren’t you going to try again?” Namjoon asks.

“No.”

“The only way to get better is to keep try–”

“I said no,” Taehyung says sharply.

“But–”

“I said no. He is my fledgling, and I know what is best for us. I know when it is too much. Now please excuse us.”

Their friends step out of their way, also knowing when it is too much and when not to try to change Taehyung’s mind.

“Tae, I’m sorry…” Jungkook says quietly as they walk back to their bedroom.

Taehyung wraps an arm around him as they walk. He kisses his temple. “Don’t be, my love. We have all the time in the world.”

– ☾ –

The second time they attempt to stretch the bond, it somehow goes even worse.

They do not truly reattempt it until around a week later, with Yoongi having to go on a run to the hospital for more blood bags in the meantime. Each day leading up to when they planned to try again, they microdosed it and found themselves more successful each time. Which is not saying a lot, considering it consisted of sitting on opposite ends of the living room while still within view of each other and talking; or taking it a step further and doing the same, but facing opposite directions; or, in a show of great strength and courage, spending every thirty minutes away from each other.

Each new thing they tried was difficult at first but managed to go smoothly if they pushed themselves (with a lot of reassurance in between), so they decided they were ready to actually try again.

This time, Taehyung will stay inside puttering around while Jungkook goes outside to play with their friends – something he’s been doing almost every night, but with Taehyung on the back porch watching them (but out of lovesick adoration, not for any other reason). This time, Taehyung will remain inside, and hopefully since Jungkook will be distracted with having fun, he will not feel the bond being stretched and will allow it to do so without reverting to his natural state to protect himself like last time.

“Remember that if you need to come see me, you can, okay?” Taehyung reminds him for the hundredth time within the past hour as they prepare for the sun to set. “If it gets to be too much, you can come right inside.”

Jungkook nods. He looks somber, but hopefully spending some time running around with their friends will lift his spirits. “It’s the same for you too, you know,” Jungkook says. He sits on the edge of their bed, and he pulls Taehyung down onto his lap – a position they have found themselves in a lot since the night Taehyung fed from him again. It is a position that fills Taehyung with blushing embarrassment, and even more of it because of how much he loves it. Jungkook’s hands run up and down his sweatpants-covered thighs, because Jungkook has influenced how he dresses when they are at home. It is strange to be dressed so casually, but Jungkook always claims it makes him look cuddly, and when that is followed by proof of that, Taehyung will dress however is needed if it makes Jungkook cuddle him. “If you need to be with me, you can come get me too.”

“I know, darling boy,” Taehyung says. He brushes a lock of Jungkook’s hair behind his ear.

“You’re good at this though,” Jungkook pouts.

“My love, it is not without immense difficulty,” Taehyung tries to assure him. “Everything in me screams that I must go be with you.” He is just the sire, and he knows this is what is best for them, so he attempts to do what he has to do.

“I know,” Jungkook mumbles. “Just being pouty…”

Taehyung laughs. “And you are very good at it, my darling.” He laughs at Jungkook’s affronted noise. “Now let’s go on. The sun has set.” The world outside their bedroom windows is dark, not even the moon out for the cold autumn night. It has been the weather for many nights now, and Taehyung cannot wait to see Jungkook in all of the seasons. To see him smile in the hot, humid summer nights, or to see his own footprints in the snow be joined by someone else’s for once.

They do not linger on the back porch for more reassurances, because they know they will not start if they stop to do so. Taehyung just gives Jungkook a kiss on the cheek and allows Jimin and Hoseok to pull him away. Taehyung turns away and quickly walks back inside, not allowing himself to watch him go.

He will be spending his night alone. He found during their other sessions that having their friends there to try to divert his attention just made him irritable and made it all worse, while having the opposite effect on his easy-to-distract puppy-like fledgling. So instead he is going to spend his time in their living quarters, preparing it for Jungkook’s permanent residence. He will be making room in their closet, and finally going through the mess in the other various rooms of his wing of the house if he has time. He hopes that his tasks being so Jungkook-focused, and being specifically about how he will be staying by Taehyung’s side, will ease some of the inherent discomfort of what they are doing.

He wonders if he should wait for Jungkook to do their closet, because he is certain Jungkook would be quite entertained if he actually looked through his clothes rather than picking through them for something comfortable that he can wear. Taehyung still has many relics from decades past, both because he has been lazy in keeping up with his belongings and keeping up with trends, and because it has worked out anyway, because trends tend to be recycled and come back around, and Taehyung always has clothing from the original era that has been brought back, not a cheap remake trying to mimic what once was.

He wonders if he should clear out an entire half of his closet and let it rest empty, or if he should clear out half of each section. He goes to his expansive sweater collection and taps his chin, looking at everything that hangs there. He ventures to his smaller selection of t-shirts and shifts some of them aside to see. He should probably get Jungkook’s input, but he cannot, and he already knows what he’d like to do anyway. Having the closet divided in half would feel so… impersonal. As if they only share half of the space, like they are only roommates.

But if he shifts his sweaters over and creates space on the other side of them, and if he pushes his t-shirts aside, and if he creates another half on every shelf of his shoes, Jungkook will have his own part of everything, but their things will be mixed together. And it is what he wants. He wants him and Jungkook to be so intricately intertwined that it is difficult to separate them, even in such simple ways like picking out where one starts and the other ends in their closet.

He finds that there is comfort in doing the quiet activity alone – sitting on the floor, refolding some of his pants in his dresser to make room for Jungkook’s. That isn’t to say that he wouldn’t rather have Jungkook here, because he certainly would. But knowing Jungkook is having fun with their friends while he is enjoying some alone time, it feels rather nice. He feels as though he hasn’t checked in on himself in a while, since he has been so wholeheartedly devoted to his fledgling. He has never understood the phrase coming home to oneself, because he never saw himself as his home. He was not somewhere he wanted to spend time; he was something he wanted to escape from, because all there was was a cold, empty husk. But now if he looks around, it is getting rather cozy here. He cannot say it is a home, but it’s… it’s something. He is something.

He stands with a crack of his knees once the last of his shoes have been moved over. It is so strange when his body reflects his human age despite everything else. The creak of his bones, the occasional ache in his back. The grey in his hair and the faint lines in his face. Some things make him seem like he is not as powerful as he can be. It’s nice to feel that way. Jungkook makes him feel that way too.

He starts to finally feel some discomfort when he has made his way through their closet. He looks his work over and feels pleased seeing the places Jungkook can fit himself in. He checks the clock and sees that nearly an hour and a half has passed – the longest they have made it so far. He wants to go check on Jungkook to make sure he is okay, but that would set back their progress, and he knows he is safe with their friends. He wants to reach for the bond to see how he is feeling, but they agreed not to do that either – at least for now. Once they are actually able to be apart and are apart, it will be okay to reach for the other and feel each other in their absence, but not when they are testing its limits and the other is just a few seconds away.

Perhaps he will take a nap. It almost seems like cheating, but he thinks it might be the opposite, and would test them even further. They have not slept apart since the night he brought Jungkook home. Their hours unconscious are spent clinging to one another, relishing in their shared body heat, their shared bond, the feeling of contentment. Taking a nap might propel them further, and he really can’t imagine focusing on another task and not allowing himself to obsess over Jungkook.

So he slides into bed. He tries to ignore the emptiness on the other side of him, or on top of him, or behind him, and he closes his eyes.

– ☾ –

The bedroom is dark when Taehyung blinks his eyes open. He lets his eyes fall closed again, and he reaches an arm out, searching for his love to pull him closer in his half-sleep so he can cling to him while they rest a little bit longer.

He feels around sleepily, but is only met with the flat mattress. It takes him a few more seconds of blindly dragging his hand around to realize that the bed is empty of anyone but him.

He sits up with a start, fast enough that he goes lightheaded. Still more than half asleep, he throws the blanket off before he even recovers from the dizzy spell. He looks around the room, his head spinning and vision swimming as his head jerks around. Everything looks as if it were casted in shadows, different shades of the same blackness that is looming in the corner. It creeps closer and closer so slowly, peeking over the furniture, crawling his way. He is the only one here. His love is gone. His love is gone and he is here and there are shadows in the corners, darkness spreading across the floor, some more of it dripping from the ceiling. Each droplet brings with it something new until they seep into Taehyung, chanting in his head, fogging over his mind as it becomes darker and darker. He is gone he is gone my love my love my love is gone he has left he is gone it is only me he is gone I am alone I am alone I am alone without my love.

He squeezes his eyes shut, squeezes the sides of his skull to stop the thought as he curls forward. He staggers back from the force and his back meets the bed. When he opens his eyes, the room is different. The lavish curtains, his elegant sitting area, his view into the dark gardens – they disappear. He is looking out a second-story window, the wooden shutters pushed open to allow the sunlight to wander in, the blue sky giving him a peek out into the world as the sound of horse hooves gallop on the dirt road and village people begin their morning.

He blinks and he is back at the manor, he blinks and he is back in a home he once lived. And in both places, his love his love his love is gone. He scrambles off the bed, red silk and burlap-colored quilt. His feet stumble on the floor, red persian rug and a dusty hardwood that creaks. He remembers blood on his hands, he looks down at them and they are clean, he blinks, is there red dried beneath his fingernails? Is it a trick of the darkness? the sun? the moon? It is night and it is morning, he looks around and is he here or is he there? The manor, the apartment above the inn. His easel is in the corner, he blinks and it is gone, just his reflection in the mirror that does not look recognizable even though he has always looked like this, then and now, but now he is becoming darkness, and he cannot see what is a shadow.

He looks around the room and stumbles. Nothing is right. Nothing looks right, everything feels wrong. His love is gone his love is gone. He remembers, he remembers, he remembers holding his body in his arms, lifeless, blood seeping through his clothes, onto his skin, so much that it had to have bled through his skin too. The way his love looked up at him, the way he looked at him and saw him, those dark eyes somehow so bright, seeing him for one final moment before they dimmed, dimmed, dimmed, before they no longer saw him. They did not even close, they still looked up at him, but he did not see him anymore, and Taehyung could not see him anymore either. He was no longer there, and he would not come back, no matter how hard Taehyung shook him, begging him, begging his heart to beat, begging him to come back, no matter how much he screamed and pleaded, cried looking up to the sky, begging, begging, he will do anything, anything to not let this be. If his love’s life is taken, then please take his life too, because he cannot–he can’t–

Taehyung drops to his knees, and an anguished, despaired cry tears through the air. It rips from his chest, enough pain to tear him apart but do nothing else, because the sky does not care for his cries; his wails mean nothing, and neither does he. He hears a door slam open as animalistic sounds fill the air. They are coming from him, because he recognizes these sounds, he has cried them before, when he held his love in his arms and watched the life fade from him, until he was there no more, until he had to close his eyelids with trembling hands, knowing he would never see his eyes, never again. His eyes, those eyes, so special and full of so much love for him as if he ever deserved it. He cries and screams, feeling that presence in his chest fade. It would be better, he thinks, if he felt a distinctive rip, a tear, a snipping of the string that bound them together. Anything but this slow, slow fading like a forgotten memory, like what it is, what it became, what it is meant to be. He tries to grasp it, the fraying string the dying warmth in his chest, fights and begs and claws at it, but it fades from his fingertips. And he can feel himself do the same.

No longer does he see anything. It is all darkness. There are shapes, there are people, but they are all nothing to him. A hand settles on his shoulder, and he sends the body flying into the wall across from him. He slams the veranda door open so hard it sounds like he tears it off its hinges, and he barrels out into the cold night. He can smell the scents of the city, hears what sounds it can offer so late at night. He can see the village, with its dirt streets and its vendors selling the season’s fruits and vegetables and flowers and bread. He can hear the world and the way it continues to carry on, as if it did not take the most precious thing of all from him. The world continues to move forward as time does the same, as if it cannot tell that there marks a moment in time where Jungkook was no longer a part of it. As if the world should carry on when something so precious was no longer there. Taehyung would no longer hear his twinkling laugh while seeing the way his nose scrunches as he held an apple in his palm for a horse to eat, somehow able to calm the creature enough that it did not fear the inhuman being in their midst on one of the better days. He would no longer laugh with him when he whines in bed when a goose feather from their pillows manages to poke through the fabric of their cases and poke into his cheek. He’d no longer hear the gentle, patient, calm voice that spoke to him for the very first time, the one that was able to subdue the monster within him, that was able to pull him from his years of darkness into who he was able to become – someone who, somehow, was worthy of being loved by such an angel who had the bad luck of ever meeting him. The same soft voice who would later whisper that he loved him, that he was beautiful, and gentle, and was not the monster that he allowed to guide him because it was easier than the alternative.

And it is easier now, as it was then.

It is easier for the rage to overtake him, rather than the desperate despair. It is easier to burn the world down than to mourn on it alone, because there is meant to be his love at his side, his love, his love, his precious kindhearted love whose eyes once closed and never opened again.

With a chilling growl that holds more pain than threat, he barrels through the manor’s grounds, through the village square, toward the forest, toward the city. Something tries to stop him, but whatever it is finds its body thrown through a tree before they can even reach him. His love was taken from him, and if his life must end here because of it, then everyone else’s will too. Everything ends here, time will not carry on because his precious love, his world, his sweet darling boy will not be carried forward by time anymore. Taehyung’s life has ended, and now everyone’s will too, because the world will not carry on without his boy in it.

“DON’T TOUCH HIM,” he hears someone cry. It is the only voice he can pick out through those endlessly shouting at him. It gets swallowed up by the others, by more shouts and yells and sounds of pain as Taehyung throws aside everything that tries to reach him.

He is close to the bounds of the city, able to hear a car drive down the street, a wagon’s wheels catch in the uneven dirt. He throws off another hand that tries to pull him back, can smell everything get closer, the greasy food of shops open to serve the nightlife, the smell of fresh fish displayed in market stalls. He continues to run and growl and cry and plead, and he stops in his tracks when someone stands before him. He crouches down in the dead leaves of the forest floor, panting and growling and hissing in warning at the shadow that is taking slow steps closer. He cannot see their face, cannot see anything, only dark shadows and the way the light outlines them. He cannot hear their voice, though he can tell it is there by the way the air moves around it. He wants to run, and he can, he can get around, he can escape, he can throw them across the forest with a flick of his wrist. But he stays rooted to the spot, even the growls fading from his chest. It lets through the occasional whimper, the occasional cry, the occasional wail that tears at his own eardrums. His head drops forward, his body heaving, because it is not fair. It is not fair for something so good and precious and pure to have been taken. He is a monster, he has done unspeakable things, but he is not sure that even he himself deserves the despair of living a life without his love. He thinks that is too cruel even for a monster like him. His forehead drops to the forest floor, handfuls of soil crumbling through his fingers as he cries. He feels it start from deep in his chest and crack open his ribcage, trying to release a fraction of the pain he feels, but nothing will ever be enough to make it go away. He cannot live without him. He cannot go another day without him.

He can feel it, when the change finally happens. When whatever of him that was left is swallowed up, the shadows hiding him as he disappears within them. He finds himself on his feet and a moment away from running, before he is stopped again. Not by hands, not by force, but by a gentle voice.

He cannot hear the words, but he can hear the sounds, as if listening to a song in a language he doesn’t know. He can hear the lilt to it, the intonation, the way the syllables are said softly. A few words reveal themselves, but he just listens to the sound. “...here… please… I… here… back… come–back… to me…” He looks around him, and it is a cold autumn night, the moon hidden by clouds, the dead leaves rustling in the breeze that easily soars through the barren branches. But the voice feels like spring. It is light and dewy, pastels and soft flower petals. A voice he recognizes, he thinks, because he knows it. He has known it for a century. He knows the sound, but cannot make out the shape of the words. He closes his eyes, letting the comfort of its gentle song soothe his aching body, his aching heart.

“Baby.”

Taehyung's eyes open.

Baby.

His eyes look up, and then they travel down when the person in front of him drops to his knees, mirroring Taehyung in the cold, dark forest. Taehyung does not move. He does not flinch back when hands slowly reach out. He watches them come closer, then he allows them to rest on his cheeks. He allows himself to be pulled closer, until a forehead is resting against his own. His own hands relax, dropping the handfuls of dirt he held when cursing the world for what it had done. He feels that despair rise in him again, but it feels too far away to reach for.

“Tae,” a voice says softly. Patiently, but almost sounding a little amused too. “I know you’re in there, baby. Come back to me.” The words feel familiar, as if he has heard them before. He can feel the shape of them in his own mouth. “I miss you, Tae. Come back.” Taehyung’s hand is in somebody else’s, and it’s pressed flat against something. Taehyung feels a hand on his own chest. “Focus right here. You can feel me, baby, can’t you? Because I’m right here. You can feel me right here,” then Taehyung feels lips press against his cheekbone, “and right here,” a hand pressing against his chest.

Taehyung feels it, then. Something in his chest. There is not a hollowness there. There is not an aching emptiness, the absence of something that was once at home.

There is something there. Something warm, something that is not his own.

He blinks, and he sees the forest. He sees the blank sky, the empty trees. He feels a warm palm on his cheek, another against his chest. He blinks and his eyes refocus, and there is his love. Doe eyes looking back at him, searching him, looking scared, but when Taehyung meets his gaze, looking relieved. And Taehyung can feel that relief, because he is there with him, the other half of him there. “Tae?” he asks quietly, nervous.

Taehyung just allows himself to collapse into Jungkook’s arms. Jungkook holds him, so fully and completely. He hears a sigh of relief that he does not think comes only from Jungkook, but he cannot focus on anything but the warm arms wrapped around him, holding him as if he were precious. A warmth that he knows, because his love is here.

“I’m here, baby,” Jungkook says softly, and Taehyung sinks further. His eyes close as he tries to nuzzle closer, hearing an endeared coo. “My soft, cuddly sire. You scared me.”

Taehyung swallows. It takes several tries to figure out how to find his voice again. “I am sorry,” he says quietly. “I was scared too.”

“You don’t have to be. I’ve got you. I’m here.”

Jungkook holds him and speaks to in a way that he isn’t sure he deserves, long enough that Taehyung fears the sun might rise soon. Eventually his love says, “Let’s go inside. Let’s get in bed. It’s scary out here…” It makes Taehyung laugh, because it is not the first time he has said this. He allows Jungkook to pull him to his feet. He stands there feeling so weak as Jungkook brushes the twigs and dead leaves off of him.

It is a slow, quiet walk back to the manor.

“Did I hurt anybody?” Taehyung asks quietly, terrified.

“Not too badly,” Jungkook says. “Everyone was more scared for you than of you.”

“I should apologize…” he says as the manor comes into view, its warm light spilling from the windows into the dark night.

“You should, but you don’t have to right now.”

“But–”

“No,” Jungkook says. “Let me take care of you before you worry about taking care of anybody else.”

“Okay…” Taehyung reluctantly accepts.

But it is not hard when Jungkook sits him on the edge of the bed, and he gently washes the dirt from his hands with a warm, wet cloth. When he teases him and coos as he pulls out pieces of leaves from his hair. When he slowly undresses him and changes him into a set of pajamas, and when he slides into bed with him, pulling him into his arms.

Everything already feels so far away. It is the same as it always has been. When the feral side of him takes over and he returns back to himself, everything from that time becomes a distant haze that he cannot see through. It has happened more times than he can count, and he wishes that part were not so. It is why so much of his life is lost to him, why he cannot remember what has lived in his periods of darkness.

And that is okay. He does not want it near him. He does not need to be able to see through it. All that he needs to know is that his love is here. His Jungkook is right here, holding him. Whispering to him, calling him baby, pressing kisses against his head, and promising him that he will not leave.

– ☾ –

Somehow, as if they got it out of their system the first two times, the third time they attempt to stretch the bond, it goes okay.

Their friends are on ultra high alert to quite an extreme extent, enough that Taehyung is afraid that their anxiety and uneasiness will make it harder for the two of them. He finds it a little unnecessary, even though deep down he knows it is warranted, because things got so close to reaching a point of no return, he fears.

Their friends have taken turns between staying with Taehyung and staying with Jungkook, switching every other hour and hanging around in new groups. Those who come to take over Taehyung’s shift are always out of breath and look quite ruffled from spending their time with the silly energetic fledgling, and it just makes Taehyung miss him even more.

But he has been okay on his own too.

He has been puttering around – organizing their living quarters to allow more room for Jungkook like he was doing before, or lounging around and reading a book. It’s so strange to think that he used to live an entire life like this before he met Jungkook. He is unsure what he even used to spend that time doing. Everything now feels like a stand-in for Jungkook when they cannot spend some of their time together.

“Tae?” Jimin says.

Taehyung looks up from the book in his hands as Jimin welcomes himself into his library. “Hm?”

“Jungkook wanted to take a nap earlier, and we think he’s about to wake up in a minute. We thought maybe it might be good if you were together for that, just in case? Then afterward, Yoongi, Hoseok, and I are going to take him on a walk through the forest to adjust him to being near the city.”

Taehyung laughs to himself because of how close this feels to their friends babysitting them. We just put little Jungkookie down for a nap, and we thought we might take him on a walk soon.

Taehyung would like to be with Jungkook when they venture out of the isolation of the manor and closer to the public world to make sure he is okay, but that’s really why he’s not going. Jungkook can be better behaved when he is with his sire and under his protective eye, but it is more of a test of where he is at in his new life to see how he is when his sire isn’t there.

He ignores Jimin’s teasing as he brushes past him. He rushes down the hall to where his little angel is asleep in the living room, whining as Hoseok tries to shake him awake so they don’t waste any of the darkness outside. “Jungkook-aaaaaah,” Hoseok whines, and receives an even whinier whine in return as Jungkook tries to turn over and ignore him.

“Darling, don’t you–” Taehyung staggers several steps back with an oof when he has a little fledgling crash into him before clinging onto him like a spider monkey.

“Sire,” Jungkook sighs, then he climbs up his body like he is scrambling up a tree until they’re face to face. A bright smile as if all of the sunlight were given to him. “Hi. Are we done?”

Taehyung walks them over to the couch and plops down so Jungkook is sitting on his lap. “We are not. Just came to see you wake up just in case something bad happened.” Jungkook pouts. “We’ve made it through half the day though, my love. It is already night.”

Jungkook looks out the window, where night has indeed fallen. “Oh, wow, really?” He looks back at Taehyung. “Just because it seemed easy doesn’t mean I didn’t miss you the whole time…”

Taehyung coos. He runs his fingers through Jungkook’s hair, then pulls him closer by a hand on the back of his neck. He kisses his cheek. “My darling boy. I know. I have missed you too. But we should both get going now; I just wanted to be here in case you woke up feeling unwell. You will have fun exploring with our friends.” It takes all of his willpower to move Jungkook off of him. He really does not want to reset all of their progress though, so he stands while Jungkook keeps pouting on the couch. He leans down and cups Jungkook’s cheeks in his hands. “Have fun and behave, alright? Be the good little fledgling you are. And be safe. You are my whole entire world, my love. My whole world. I cannot lose you.” Again, something whispers. The whisper has grown more insistent since the night he strayed from himself, but he hasn’t had a moment to think about it all yet.

“I’ll be careful…” Jungkook mutters.

“Good,” Taehyung says. With a kiss between his eyebrows, he turns to leave.

Before he leaves the living room though, Jungkook calls out, “Baby?”

Taehyung freezes. With his lips pressed together, pointedly avoiding the amused eyes of all of their friends sprinkled around the room, Taehyung turns. Jungkook, knowing full well what he’s doing, just rests his chin on top of his arms along the back of the couch.

“I’ll miss you,” Jungkook says, with the cheekiest smile on his lovely face.

Taehyung shakes his head, finally smiling as he blushes in front of everyone. “I will miss you too, my devilish little fledgling.”

“Hey! You just said I was good!” Jungkook calls after him as he leaves the room.

“You will have to prove it to me!”

“Babyyyyyy!” Jungkook calls after him. Taehyung can feel his impish mischievousness through the bond. His devilish little angelic fledgling.

“‘Baby,’ huh?” Seokjin says when he appears in his bedroom with a sly smile on his face.

“Stop it,” Taehyung says, face burning as he refuses to meet his eye. “I am going to take a nap, so if you’ll excuse me.” He was already planning on doing so, but it is even more convenient and enticing now that it will hide his blushing embarrassment that Kim Taehyung is called baby – and by his fledgling, no less.

As he is waiting for sleep to come, he hears on the other side of his bedroom door, Seokjin’s voice say, “Joon, you have to tell him.”

Followed by, “I said no. I can’t tell him. I just–give me some time to figure out how to do this.”

“But–”

“All that all of us has is time, my dear,” Namjoon says.

It is followed by more conversation that is lost to him as they walk away, something he does not wish to follow when sleep comes to him so sweetly.

– ☾ –

Even more sweetly is the way he wakes up. Soft little kisses are pressed to his face by a boy who smells as if he has had quite an active past few hours. Taehyung can smell the scent of grass and autumn clinging to him, but the city as well – meaning they must have gotten quite close to it. And when he opens his eyes, he does not see any dirt or blood or evidence of a quarrel, meaning it must have gone okay too.

“Hello there, my little fledgling,” Taehyung says sleepily. He pulls Jungkook to him fully.

“Hi, baby,” Jungkook says. In the privacy of their room, Taehyung does not try to hide from the way that pet name makes him feel. He allows Jungkook to pull him into his arms instead, and he allows himself to nuzzle into his fledgling’s neck. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” Taehyung says dreamily. “Missed you. How are you? How was your outing?”

Jungkook’s lips press to his temple, remaining there for several long seconds. Taehyung’s eyelids flutter until they fall closed at the feeling. “I missed you too. And it was fun. We got really close to the city! Like, I could hear and smell some humans and I didn’t even care! Well, I cared a little bit, because they said my eyes turned red, but it was really for only half a second before I controlled it, and then I forgot about it. We got even closer to humans after that and I barely even noticed. And when I did, I especially didn’t care because they smell gross compared to you.” Jungkook’s nose buries itself in his hair, taking a deep breath in. “Humans probably taste gross compared to you too.”

Taehyung chuckles. It is a strange thing to bashfully take a compliment, but it still does move him. “I feel the same, my love. Are you hungry now?”

“No, ‘m a little sleepy because of all the walking we did today.”

“Shall we sleep some more then? The sun is up.”

“Yeah, wanna,” Jungkook says, already wiggling around to get comfortable as he smacks his lips together.

“‘m glad we’re together again,” Taehyung says. He burrows closer so Jungkook will hold him tighter. And he does.

“Me too, sire,” Jungkook says. Jungkook kisses him on his head again, then he succumbs to sleep so easily it is almost comical. The distance apart must have been as tiring for him as it was for Taehyung, because now that they are together, it is as if they can finally truly rest. Knowing Jungkook is safe, and knowing he himself is safe too when held so protectively in his fledgling’s arms, Taehyung rests with him.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Tae,” Namjoon says, knocking on his bedroom door frame. Taehyung looks over from making his bed to see his friend running his hand over his honey blonde buzzcut like he does as an uneasy fidget sometimes. “I, uh–I brought, so, I found, uh, a journal. Where someone, uh, talks about, you know, a bond they have with someone. The, uh, th-the journal’s kind of, you know, old and falling apart, handwriting kind of illegible and smudged a-and water damage probably, so–hah, anyway. I transcribed the pages for you.”

He sets a stack of papers onto his nightstand. “Oh, you typed everything up for me?” Taehyung says, looking down at them. “That was so kind of you. Thank you, Namjoon-ah. I will read these in the morning.”

Namjoon nods. “Have, um–have a nice walk.” He escapes before Taehyung can inquire about his constant nervous stuttering.

He is distracted from it anyway when Jungkook exits their closets and asks, “When are we going to go clothes shopping? I look like I’m from the eighteen-hundreds.”

Taehyung laughs. “Yes, darling, because back then they were wearing black sweaters with–what are these, where have you even found these pants? They look very nice on you.” The baggy black pants suit Jungkook very well. Taehyung has only ever seen him in lounge clothes, never something to go out into the world in. Not that they have to even be dressed for the world now, since they are venturing into the city well past its bedtime hours. Still, as Taehyung dressed for the night, he found himself putting in a little extra effort for some reason. He dressed in his nicest burgundy cashmere sweater, along with a pair of brown plaid pants, and a dark brown trench coat he will wear over it. He purposefully styled his hair in a slightly wind-swept, wavy look, so that when the breeze does ruffle it, it looks as it did before.

Jungkook seems to have put in a little extra effort too, and he looks lovely. The all-black attire really suits him. His hair has grown out from their haircut already and reaches the bottom of his neck in waves and whisps like before, just longer. It is parted down the middle and keeps his forehead exposed, and he looks almost like the Hollywood heartthrobs Taehyung often saw in the eighties.

Jungkook dons one of his black trench coats, and he just looks bewitching. Like the kindest, sweetest, gentlest creature of the night that the world has ever seen. The effect sparkles even more when Jungkook asks, “Does it hurt your feelings when I tease you about being old?”

Taehyung laughs. He takes Jungkook’s hand, fits their fingers together, and leads them to the veranda door. “It has not so far, because I do not think it will. Especially when it is about something silly that I know is exaggerated, such as my wardrobe. I know that we are dressed as any people nowadays would be; I know it is just harmless teasing.” He opens the French doors, and they step out into the night. “You are right though, we should take you shopping. I want you to have things of your choosing, in your correct sizing, even though nothing looks out of place on you.”

Jungkook gently swings their hands between them as they venture across the crunchy grass that has been frosted over from the nighttime chill. It’s rather eerie out if he were to think about it, which he notices now because Jungkook finds things such as these creepy with his humanness still so recent. It feels as though the season is holding its breath, waiting for snow to bring some beauty to the barren trees and the dark nights.

“How though?” Jungkook asks quietly, sadly. “I can’t go out during the day, and it’s not like you can get packages delivered to the manor.”

“Well, we do have a Post Office Box, and–”

“A P.O. box?” Jungkook asks.

“I suppose,” Taehyung says. It receives a giggle from Jungkook, as most things often do. “Hoseok and Jimin quite enjoy ordering things off of websites on the internet,” more giggles, “so they make frequent trips to the post office to retrieve their deliveries. But we do not have to do that if you do not wish. The sun sets quite early now that winter is almost here, so there are many hours we have to go shopping while stores are still open.”

They reach the edge of the property, and they enter the forest. He holds Jungkook’s hand tighter, because Jungkook has said twice now that being out here is scary. He at least does not look nor feel scared right now, but he is also looking down at the ground to make sure they do not trip rather than around him amongst the eerie trees.

“Is there anything else you would like to get?” Taehyung asks. “I suppose we should get you a cellular phone since the others have one and I am sure you would like one as well, and perhaps a portable computer?”

“I’ve never seen you use a cellphone.”

“I do not have one.”

“What?”

Taehyung shrugs. “Never really felt the need for one, and by the time I considered it, they had so many bells and whistles that I did not want to bother.”

“You should get one when I do so we can text when we’re away from each other.”

Taehyung lets go of Jungkook’s hand just to wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him close. “Anything for you my love. Come, let’s get out of the forest. It is quite creepy in here.” It’s not, but he can tell Jungkook is nervous, so he runs out of the forest knowing Jungkook will chase after him.

They reach where the forest meets the park, the same spot Taehyung would enter the city every single night for more years than he can count. They stop before they can walk any further. “Take a deep breath,” Taehyung tells his fledgling. “Inhale all the scents.” Jungkook listens and takes deep sniffs of the air. He wrinkles his nose, then so, so adorably, he sneezes. But most importantly, his fangs do not drop, and his eyes remain his deep, dark brown color. He seems unaffected by the human scents that do still linger in the air, either from the area being so populated during the day, or what they are able to detect from deeper in the city where the nightlife is still active. “What are your thoughts? How do you feel?”

Jungkook sneezes again. “I think the city smells bad and I never noticed it as much before, and humans smell gross.” Then Taehyung has his little fledgling burrowing into him. Jungkook’s nose is pressed right against his neck, smelling him instead to make it go away. He feels Jungkook’s contentment through the bond when he’s surrounded by his sire and the bad things disappear. Then Jungkook sinks his fangs into his neck. He takes one small sip of him, then he licks his wounds closed. He leans back and looks at him, looking so mischievous, knowing his sire won’t scold him.

“You devilish little thing,” Taehyung says. He gently pulls on his earlobe, then he takes his hand right after. “Let’s walk. Please tell me if you have any thoughts or feelings to share, since this is your first night out.”

Jungkook nods, and they begin their walk. They stroll through the grass to the sidewalk that weaves through the park and officially enter the city. Taehyung hasn’t been here in so long, when he used to walk every single night without fail. These walks were the one time when he really enjoyed his solitude, finding solace in being by himself in the quiet rather than emptiness and the sense of being so alone – although that was sometimes there too. Now, it is even more lovely with someone he loves so dearly by his side, the boy’s hand warm in his own.

The park looks the same as it had months ago, only with fewer leaves on the trees, because there are not any at all. There is frost on the grass as well, and the occasional breath they take holds shape in the air in front of them. An unseen owl still hoots when they pass, one of the few kinds that stays behind for the winter and does not leave for warmer weather. It is all the same that it is during this time of year, but it all feels so different when he has someone he loves with him. It feels different when the silence is filled with Jungkook’s voice, when all there ever was were the sound of his footsteps.

“Why don’t you paint anymore?” Jungkook asks. The way he says it sounds like it has been on his mind, probably since Taehyung mentioned it.

Taehyung does not like to think about it, but he does not want Jungkook to think anything about him is off limits to him. “I’m not very sure…” he says. “One day I stopped, and I did not start again. I do not remember why that happened, just that the thought of painting again–” He does not know how to explain the feeling it filled him with. Or perhaps the feeling it took out of him. “It just did not seem appealing.”

“I want to see you paint… Or see things you’ve painted.”

Taehyung knows he has paintings of his own hidden away at the manor, but he does not want to look at them. He does not want to see moments from his past – something he wants to largely forget about, so much so that his body and his mind have worked to do so for him.

But maybe… If Jungkook would like him to…

The thought does not bring to him the same feeling it once did, for some reason. It still makes him feel uneasy, but it is not something he wants to shut away the second it appears. “Perhaps I will think about it,” he says hesitantly. Even as he says it though, there is not the feeling that he should not be doing this. If anything, there is an anticipation. He remembers the feeling of a brush in his hand. The act of mixing colors together until he has the one he wishes for. The sound of the brush against canvas. “You told me before that you used to draw, when I learned about why you came to the city. Is that something you like to do?”

Taehyung looks above him at the way the park light bleeds its warm light out into the night, the way it colors the air around it. He watches moths dance and sway, rejoicing in its illumination. The shining light, though, makes him realize they walked beneath the one that is burnt out. They walked right past the bench he first saw Jungkook, and neither of them seemed to have noticed. How strange, when it was somewhere they both spent so much time. He would like to sit there on their way back. Perhaps hold his little love there, something he was unable to do before, something he did not know he wanted so badly.

“Yeah, I like drawing,” Jungkook says, “and I kind of, uh… always wanted to be a tattoo artist…”

“Oh!” Taehyung says. “That would suit you so well, darling.”

“Yeah, but… I mean, it’s not like we need jobs…”

Taehyung scoffs. “So? If it is something you love doing, and it is an art, then it would not be a job.”

“But what about… you know, blood?”

“Oh,” Taehyung says somberly. Then more happily, “Oh! Well, darling, you know we are not the only vampires that exist.” Jungkook looks at him, head tilted to the side. “I have some… well, I am not sure I would call them friends, because I do not think I have any other friends than those who live with us. But I have some acquaintances whose company I have previously found some type of joy in, and–”

Jungkook snorts. “You talk about them so sweetly.”

Taehyung laughs. “Shush. Anyway, I know many people, and we have five others who have their own people they know as well. Darling, there are many vampires who I am sure would love to be tattooed, but cannot go to tattoo shops run by humans, who would be quite confused feeling how cold their skin is, among other things.”

“Oh…” Jungkook says. Taehyung looks over and sees a small smile on his face as he looks down at the ground. “I never thought about that…”

Taehyung lets go of Jungkook’s hand and wraps his arm around himself. “Well, I suppose we should get you some supplies to practice on. And I know Jimin has wanted tattoos as well.”

“What about you?” Jungkook asks.

“Well… I cannot say I have ever wanted a tattoo, but I would be happy to let you practice on me, if you would wish to do so.”

“God, Tae,” Jungkook says. A kiss is pressed against his temple. “You’re so…” Jungkook sighs and shakes his head. “It’s okay. They make fake skin and stuff to do that on, and I’d practice on myself too because I’ve always wanted tattoos.”

Taehyung hums. “You will look very attractive with tattoos, my darling. I will have to fight your clients away from you, I can already foresee it.”

They reach the bridge that Taehyung has walked over so many times before. He realizes Jungkook must have too. The sound of their footsteps is different here; they sound older on the cobblestone that has aged and weathered and cannot be restored like the sidewalks through the park unless they were to tear down the bridge and start anew. The same bridge has been here since Taehyung moved to the manor though, so he hopes it is here to stay.

They both stop at the height of it, as if this was what they both always did when walking over. Taehyung looks down at the rippling water, at the city’s lights that reach it better than the last time he walked here because there are no leaves to shield its light from the river. He wonders if this winter will be cold enough for it to freeze over. It rarely is; he thinks he only saw it once or twice before.

“Fight them away, huh?” Jungkook says. Taehyung looks away from the river and sees Jungkook leaning against the stone wall of the bridge, his arms crossed as he looks at him.

“Well, of course,” Taehyung says. He hops onto the wide railing of the bridge – something he has never done before. He supposes he wanted Jungkook to stand in front of him, maybe rest his hands on him to ensure he won’t fall, even though they both know he will not. He gets what he wishes for. “You are mine, are you not?”

Jungkook smiles. It is such a lovely thing to see. “I am,” he says. “And you’re mine?”

Taehyung brushes his fingertips down his cheek. “From the very first moment I saw you, my love.” Jungkook pulls him off the railing to pull him into his arms for a warm hug.

“Tae?” Jungkook asks.

“Hm?” is all Taehyung can manage to say as he nuzzles his little fledgling.

“Have we not kissed before?”

Taehyung leans back to look at him, matching his cheeky smile. He knows they both know they have not. Taehyung pretends to think. “I don’t believe we have, actually, no.”

“Oh,” Jungkook says, feigning surprise.

“I suppose we should, though, shouldn’t we?”

Jungkook’s smile. God, his smile. “Yeah, I think so,” he says.

Jungkook rests a hand on his cheek. His palm is so warm, almost enough to bring him from the anticipation of what is to happen. His fingers gently hook behind his jaw to pull him in. Taehyung feels Jungkook’s breath on his lips, something so intimate and close. His eyes flutter closed. Just before he can feel his lips though, Jungkook whispers for the first time, “I love you, Taehyung,” and he kisses him.

As if he knew he would fall, Jungkook holds him up when his knees collapse. He is not sure if it is a whimper or a moan or a new sound altogether, but something escapes from Taehyung as he kisses him back. The words, the feeling of Jungkook’s lips on his, it is too much. He did not know he had been waiting for this. He feels as if he has been waiting for so long. He feels as if they have kissed hundreds of times before, and he feels like this is their very first one too. Their lips part for a breath that they do not need to take, but Taehyung feels like he will die if he does not do so. He presses their lips together again just a second later. The warmth he feels in his chest, it is a warmth that they share, and it feels like they can stop the arrival of winter with it, or perhaps it is the reason why winter is near, because they took the warmth from summer and spring and the beginning of fall.

Taehyung whimpers when he feels Jungkook’s tongue along his bottom lip. He parts them so easily for him, because he would do anything for his little fledgling. A shaky breath, a quiet whimper, a deep moan, all from him when he feels Jungkook’s tongue against his own. Just a brush of it before the kiss ends with a click of their lips. Another kiss, and a gentle brush of their tongues, one hand on Taehyung’s cheek, the other around his waist, pulling him closer, causing his back to dip. One hand traveling down, then the other, and Taehyung jumps, caught by Jungkook. Arms and legs wrapped around him, wanting to be closer, so much closer. Jungkook presses him against the railing of the bridge as he kisses him so fully, so deeply, as if he wants to consume him. And he can, he has. He is his to consume. Taehyung’s fingers bury themselves in the hair at Jungkook’s nape, scratching him there, heart soaring at the pleased hum Jungkook lets out into his mouth.

They do not need to stop for breath, but they do need to stop because Taehyung has a heart that beats now, and he has to give it a rest or he fears what may happen. His cheek rests against Jungkook’s shoulder. He closes his eyes while a smile rests on his lips, soft. Jungkook nuzzles his cheek against his hair. He sets him down a few moments later, steadying him with a hold on his hips because Taehyung feels so dizzy from it all. He finds he cannot bring himself to look at Jungkook because he is so shy.

Jungkook tilts his head up though, and they lock eyes. Jungkook brushes his fingertips down his cheek this time. “You are so beautiful,” he says quietly. A palm rests against his cheek, and Taehyung presses into it.

“My little fledgling,” Taehyung whispers. He rests his hands on the sides of Jungkook’s neck. “My darling boy. My love. I love you so much, my sweetheart. So much.”

Jungkook grows shy this time, dropping his eyes to look at Taehyung’s lips. He looks up at him again. “I love you, sire,” he says quietly.

“I am so happy to have found you again,” Taehyung whispers.

Jungkook’s eyes roam all around his face. He kisses him softly. “Me too,” he whispers back.

Taehyung takes his hand, and they continue their walk. At the bottom of the bridge, they wind through the rest of the park. They make their way toward the intersection that will lead them into the heart of the city, empty of cars, empty of people, just the two of them.

“Will you tell me what you did with your days?” Taehyung asks while they wait for the walk signal to tell them they may cross the street. It is not necessary, both because there are no cars here, and even if there were, they could cross the street in just a second, unharmed. But there is no rush, and pausing to wait for the light to turn means Jungkook wraps both of his arms around him. Taehyung hopes every street they have to cross makes them wait.

“Before you turned me?”

Taehyung rests his cheek against Jungkook’s shoulder, looking out at the city lights as his boy hugs him. “Mhm,” he nods. “I know that you used to go to the gym, probably to shower, but–”

Jungkook leans back and raises an eyebrow at him. “How did you know I used to go to the gym?”

Taehyung looks at him. Jungkook looks back. Taehyung blinks. Jungkook blinks back. Taehyung doesn’t say anything. Jungkook raises an eyebrow, the corner of his lips raising too. “Well, you know I used to, like, stalk you and stuff…” he mumbles. Thankfully the arbitrary walk signal changes its light now, allowing Taehyung to pull Jungkook across the street.

“Did you see me showering at the gym?”

Taehyung turns to him. “No! Of course not. I would not do that, darling. I tracked your scent there. That’s even worse. But you weren’t there, and I did not watch you showering. The employees at the gym are probably very happy I found whatever I was looking for when I could not find you and kept showing up there.”

“I can’t imagine you being scary,” Jungkook says. He lets go of his hand to wrap his arm around his shoulders and pull him close like he always does. He kisses his temple.

“Jungkook-ah, you’ve seen me kill at least two people, and you’ve seen me fight many. I nearly killed Baekhyun. We have had to repair our home because of me, and you have seen me fight off our friends.”

Jungkook shrugs. “Still knew you were my cute, soft Tae,” he says, “so it didn’t scare me.”

Taehyung shakes his head with a laughing scoff. “I think if you see someone murder someone, it should probably change your opinion of them.”

Jungkook shrugs again. “Maybe if you weren’t my sire I would, but both times were done because you were protecting me too.”

Taehyung stops them from walking, in the middle of the empty sidewalk as the amber streetlights pour over them. He wraps his arms around his waist while Jungkook’s go around his neck. He meant to scold Jungkook about his questionable morals, but instead he says, “I hope you know that I would do anything to protect you, always. There is no safer place you could be than with me.”

Jungkook gives him a soft, crooked smile. He tucks a lock of hair behind his ear. Trails his fingertips down, takes a gentle hold of his chin, then pulls him in. He kisses his lips. A single slow peck nearly makes him collapse again. “I know,” Jungkook says quietly. “It’s the same for you, sire.” Jungkook pauses, shifting his eyes up and to the right as he thinks about something. “Do you stop being my sire at some point?”

Taehyung shakes his head. “I will always be the person that turned you, so I will always be your sire.”

“Do sires and fledglings usually fall in love?”

Taehyung blushes. He wants to hide away but knows Jungkook would not allow it. “Fledglings often do not even know their sires. And of the few who have sires who stuck around, I do not think they are ever particularly fond of one another.”

“So I somehow am the one lucky fledgling that’s existed?”

Taehyung blushes again and finally drops his head, resting his forehead on Jungkook’s shoulder. “I-If you think of this as something to feel lucky for, then I suppose so…”

“I can’t believe I get you forever…” Jungkook says quietly, resting his cheek against his head. “Even a human lifetime would be insane, but forever forever?”

Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut. He bites his lip to keep back the sound that would probably be close to a sob.

He cannot believe that he is wanted. And to be wanted by someone so special.

“I love you, Tae,” Jungkook says quietly.

It takes Taehyung several seconds to answer, until he knows the words will come out okay. He lifts his head to look at him, and a single tear slides down his cheek because of what he sees. Such softness, such gentleness. “I love you, Jungkook,” he says back. Jungkook brushes the tear away, and he kisses where it was.

“Here, let’s go back to the park, and I’ll take you through my whole day before I met you.”

Taehyung is grateful for the change in conversation, because it is too much for his heart too soon. Every little thing gets him overwhelmed. So he lets Jungkook walk them back to the park. They stroll along the sidewalk, through the trees, retracing their steps tonight and the ones they made every night too. They reach the bridge, and once they are at its peak, Taehyung yelps when he is lifted up. His arms and legs wrap around Jungkook to hold on, even though he knows Jungkook won’t let him fall.

“It’s tradition,” Jungkook says just before he kisses him, marking it as a tradition he knows they will always follow now. Taehyung giggles against his lips, barely able to stop smiling to be able to kiss him, but it doesn’t stop Jungkook from giving him kiss after kiss.

Jungkook lets him down, and they join hands as they cross the bridge and make their way toward his bench. It is still there, and it is so strange to see it without his Jungkook on it. It is more strange, really, that the boy who enchanted him is holding his hand. Knowing it was his Jungkook, this Jungkook that he knows and loves so dearly, who slept there in the cold every night, it looks even more heart-rending. The burnt-out sidewalk lamp seems darker, the pole rusted and covered in spiderwebs. The paint of the bench seems chipped even more, the graffiti faded into an afterthought like even the color of it cannot cling to somewhere so despondent.

“How long had you been watching me before you turned me?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung hums. “I am not sure. Perhaps two weeks?” Jungkook nods pensively. “Does that bother you?”

“No, I’m mostly mad that you’ve known me for longer than I’ve known you…”

Taehyung laughs. “You really need to be knocked in the head or something, darling. Not caring that I stalked you, not caring that I’ve killed people in front of you.” Jungkook shrugs, a smile on his face like the weird little fledgling he is.

“I’m going to lay down and I want to see how you watched me.”

Taehyung chuckles. “Okay.” Jungkook walks over to the bench, and he lies down exactly like Taehyung used to watch him sleep, like muscle memory. Legs bent to make himself fit, head cushioned on his folded arms. It makes Taehyung’s heart ache. This should not have been the life that Jungkook had been living. It was all so easy for him to settle back in, looking exactly like he did all those nights. Taehyung could make himself believe so easily that these past couple of months were all a dream he manifested while he stood right here, watching this boy sleep and allowing his mind to wander.

As Jungkook’s eyes remain closed, Taehyung does start to feel that way. Like maybe this entire time, he was watching him and daydreaming. That none of these beautiful moments happened, and it was all in his head. Panic starts to curl around his fingertips, settling into the joints of his knees.

But when he steps closer and squats down soundlessly in front of Jungkook like he always did, a hand reaches out and grabs the front of his sweater, and he pulls him in for a kiss. Taehyung sighs in relief against his lips.

When he leans back, Jungkook's eyes remain closed. Taehyung walks away, on the other side of the sidewalk, so he is in the shadow of the tree. “I used to stand here sometimes,” he says. “Because it was difficult to be so close to you, and because if you woke up, I didn’t want to be right in front of your face.”

Jungkook’s eyes open to see where he is, and the thrill of being caught courses through him. Perhaps he’s in too much disbelief that Jungkook loves him, because it is so easy to convince himself that none of this can be real.

“Why was it difficult being close to me?” Jungkook asks.

“Well,” Taehyung says. He slowly steps closer. Jungkook’s eyes close when he is in front of him again, and Taehyung crouches back down. “Because you smell so good, my love,” he says quietly. He leans closer and closer, until his face is in Jungkook’s neck. He takes a deep inhale of his scent, so warm and rich and familiar. “One of the times I was watching you, I got so close, like this.” He’s certain Jungkook can feel his breath against his neck. He can hear the sound of Jungkook’s own breath hitching. “I was so, so close to biting you,” he whispers, moving closer. “Like this.” His fangs slide into Jungkook’s neck.

Jungkook moans, a sound low and breathy. His hand finds the back of Taehyung’s neck and pulls him closer, not letting him leave. “Drink from me,” Jungkook says. His voice is so dreamlike but so solid, so commanding but sounding as if he is begging too.

Taehyung listens. He feeds from Jungkook in the way he’s wanted to from that very first night. Crouched in front of Jungkook as he lied here, his face in his neck, fangs buried as he finally got to taste if he was as delicious as he smelled. And he does, he does, Taehyung does not know how someone’s blood can be so delectable. He swallows mouthfuls of him, moaning against his neck as Jungkook moans just the same.

Before Taehyung can get too overwhelmed, he slides his fangs out and licks the wounds closed. It doesn’t help though, because Jungkook pulls him in again and crashes their lips together. He forces his tongue into his mouth, the both of them moaning when Jungkook can taste his own blood, as he licks it from his tongue. Their tongues tangle together, passing what remains of his blood back and forth until it is all swallowed. Taehyung wants this, he wants it when they have both fed, he wants to taste them on each other’s tongue until it becomes only one.

They are breathless when they part, somehow always panting against each other’s lips when they do not need to breathe. “Never would I have believed I would have this one day, if someone told me all those months ago,” Taehyung says quietly.

Jungkook rests his head back down on his arm. “You’re not the only one,” he says, watching him.

Taehyung runs his fingers through his hair, his thumb along his eyebrow. “I suppose I’m not,” he says quietly. A whisper as he continues the soothing motion of his hand through his hair, “My darling boy. Please do not get sick of me.”

Jungkook catches his hand and places a kiss along his knuckles. “I won’t,” he says with certainty. Taehyung tries to believe him, because the reality he lives in is not one he would have thought could exist, so maybe there can be some truth in unbelievable things.

Jungkook sits up, and he pulls Taehyung up with him.

“I would wake up when the sun rose, or when I heard people around me,” Jungkook says. “Then I would go to the gym to shower.” He stands, and their hands reach for each other right away, as they always do. The bond purrs because they are sire and fledgling who have stayed together, sire and fledgling who have fallen in love.

They head off in the direction they already walked, following the path Jungkook took every day, just like Taehyung did every night. They weave through the park, allowing the silence to accompany them.

When they reach the crest of the bridge, Jungkook gives him the gentlest of kisses. “You know,” he says, “I’ve kissed you every time. You should take some initiative.”

Taehyung laughs, his breath showing as a puff of fog in the cold that they cannot feel. “I’m shy…” he says quietly.

It’s met with Jungkook picking him up, squeezing him as he spins them around, giggles dancing around them. “God, sire, you’re cute,” Jungkook says, barely able to stop smiling to kiss him. “My baby.” A kiss on his cheek. “So cute.” Another.

Jungkook takes his hand to continue their walk, allowing Taehyung to compose himself. They reach the edge of the park, and they pause once more to wait for their walk signal to continue into downtown. Taehyung turns to Jungkook. He tugs on the lapel of his coat, almost like a child trying to get the attention of an adult. Jungkook looks at him, clearly doing his very best at trying to hide his smile. Taehyung can feel his face heating up, but he ignores it. He leans forward and places a soft peck on Jungkook’s lips before leaning back and looking across the street, pretending like nothing happened.

Jungkook’s arm is around him, and he is tucked in his side. “You’re going to kill me,” he says, a kiss on his temple. Taehyung closes his eyes, focusing on the feeling of his lips there even after they are gone.

They walk across the street. They have not passed a single car or a single soul in the hour they have been out. It is only them, like they have stopped time. He realizes that it is almost like they really have, since their lives will never end.

“It’s nice to be out here at night and not be afraid…” Jungkook says. Taehyung looks at him, head tilted to the side. “Whenever I was out at all, really, but especially at night, I’d be kind of scared. I mean, you’re the one who bought me a new backpack and stuff when mine got taken, so…”

Taehyung stops them, remembering that night and the cut Jungkook had on his cheek. “What happened?” he asks.

Jungkook shrugs dismissively. “It happened all the time. Just got jumped and someone took my stuff.” Taehyung hates how flippant he sounds about something so terrible. “But now I don’t have to be afraid of things like that happening. And even if it did, I could easily protect myself. I could back then too, but sometimes it happened when I wasn’t expecting it.”

Taehyung unclenches his jaw and forces himself to calm down. “And you have me,” he says. “You do not have to be afraid, because you have me, and I would do anything I needed to do to keep you safe.”

They continue their walk and finally reach their destination. “Here’s the gym,” Jungkook says, “which you know about. I would come here to shower every morning. I learned that the amount of time you could be in the shower before they remember you’re there and would kick you out was around an hour and a half, so that’s how long I usually stayed. And then after, I would stop at the same convenience store to get something to eat, where I formed a relationship with the worker who was usually there, so she’d sometimes ‘forget’ to scan some of the items I got. I’ll take you there.”

“When you were sleeping once, this group of guys walked up and were going to do something,” Taehyung says. “I don’t know what, but I stopped them before they were able to.”

Jungkook looks at him, looking alarmed even though nothing like that will happen to him again. “What happened?”

Taehyung shrugs and looks forward again. The city streets are empty, their shadows stretched out before them. Taehyung remembers when he scoured the city because he could not find his boy, when the emptiness of everything around him was terrifying rather than calming. He no longer has to search, because his boy is by his side. He is safe in a way Taehyung never thought he would get. “Just threw them around a little bit and scared them.”

Jungkook huffs a laugh. “Well, thanks for doing that… And all of the other things you did to take care of me and protect me…”

“Thank you for not being creeped out by me, even though you most definitely should be.”

Jungkook shrugs. “Here’s the convenience store.” Taehyung remembers tracking his scent here as well. There are posters in the window advertising sales on fountain drinks and that they have expanded their self-serve ramyeon selection. The only time Taehyung has been something akin to jealous for not being able to eat human food is when ramyeon became popular at convenience stores like this, and there are so many things to add to their bowls. “I tried to come here when I could, when I had the money for it, because they had healthier options than the fast food place I sometimes went to. Nothing truly healthy, but better than eating so much fried food every day. Then afterwards, I would usually head to the library and hangout there most of the time.” Taehyung tracked Jungkook’s scent to the library as well, and tells him so sheepishly, but he still lets Jungkook lead him there so he can see more into his former days with a tour guide this time.

“If your life wasn’t like this,” Taehyung says, “like everything you’re showing me, or even if it was still as it was, do you… wish you hadn’t been turned? If I found you dying and you weren’t going to die immediately, and I was able to give you a choice of being turned or not and you had been allowed to think more deeply and not make a rash decision, what would you say?”

“It depends on how much I knew, I think. If I knew I would have you, either as just my sire or as who I have you as now,” he kisses the top of his hand, “I would have grabbed you by your hair and forced your fangs into me myself.” Taehyung bursts out laughing, curling into Jungkook as they walk. Jungkook holds him, giggling with him as their footsteps stumble. “If you would have just left me though, I would have just wanted you to let me die.”

Taehyung’s heart aches, even though he thinks he knew that anyway. Still, knowing Jungkook had wanted to die for a long, long time…

But he himself did too. Taehyung wishes he had more hope that something wonderful would eventually happen. He thinks that nothing could have cut through his emptiness unless he were to see it himself, but now having Jungkook, he thinks he believes that something wonderful will always come along sooner or later.

And what a wonderful, wonderful thing it is.

“Were you always unhappy in your village?” Taehyung asks.

“Yes,” Jungkook answers without any hesitation. “I just… I never felt like I belonged there. I always wanted to leave. Not because we were poor and my parents weren’t that nice and I didn’t have many real friends. It didn’t have anything to do with any of that. I just… I always wanted to leave, because I felt like I wasn’t meant to stay. I wasn’t meant to be there. And what happened, even though it sucked and it led to me being homeless, I think it was the push that needed to happen for me to leave. It would’ve been nice for it to happen in a way where I didn’t have to live outside for so many years after, but it–it worked out okay.”

It did. Taehyung wishes, too, that it could have happened differently, but it did work out okay. They have such a long life ahead of them that it will make up for the tragedy. He will make sure of it.

“Here’s the library,” Jungkook says. It is a beautiful library, made of weathered brick with lion sculptures perched on the ends of stately stairs. The lion’s noses are a different color from the rest of their bronze bodies because so many humans tap their noses on their way up the steps. Jungkook steps up one of the stairs so he’s slightly taller than Taehyung. “I’d stay here the rest of the day usually, if I was able to, until they closed and it was time to go back out and sleep.”

“It is unfair that it was so hard for you,” Taehyung says, looking up at him.

Jungkook shrugs. “It was the same for you, but much longer.”

“Still, I had a home and food and people around me. You did not have anything.”

Jungkook shrugs again like it’s nothing. “I have all of those things now too,” he says. “I’m so distracted by being in love with you that it’s like none of that even happened.”

Taehyung looks down shyly, but his head is tilted up by Jungkook. His lips are kissed. Then again, then once more. Taehyung looks up at the sky, sad because of what he finds there. “It will be daybreak soon. We should head back home.” Jungkook pouts. They should have left earlier, but they indulged themselves with laying in bed much too long after the sun had set. “We can take a walk together every night, if you would like. We have an eternity, my darling.” Jungkook hops off the stairs, and they begin their walk back to the manor. “Will you allow me to take you on a date?”

Jungkook looks over at him, sparkly eyes wide. “A date?”

Taehyung tilts his head to the side. “Yes?”

“O-Oh…” Jungkook says. He looks forward again. “Yeah, that would be fun…”

Taehyung chuckles. “We kind of went out of order with all of this. I do not think I was supposed to devote my life to you the moment I saw you. I think we were supposed to go on a few dates first.”

Jungkook laughs. It is the only sound in the city around them. It is so quiet today, but it makes sense with the way winter is so near. He then realizes, though, that this whole time he has not been reaching for sounds or scents like he always does without realizing it. Every part of him is right here and focused on this moment, on what is around him, on who is beside him. It has never been this way.

“I don’t care what order we go in as long as I get to have you forever,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung stops them. He ignores his shyness, and he kisses him. “You will,” he promises.

– ☾ –

They really went out of order, Taehyung thinks with a laugh to himself as he walks to his bed dressed in pajamas, where his love already lays, waiting for him. Jungkook has lived with him and slept with from the beginning. They have kissed for a long time, whispered sweet words to one another for longer. They have only just now somehow kissed on the lips, all before they’ve even gone on a date.

Oh well, he thinks as he slides into bed with his boy. His traditional, gentlemanly nature that comes from the times he grew up in scolds him for it, but he has done far worse things in his life than allowed himself to be kissed and cuddled before taking certain customary steps first.

He burrows closer into Jungkook’s arms, where he’s held so fully, warmth shared inside and out. Once they’re all settled in, Taehyung’s head is tilted up and a kiss is given to him so sweetly. Taehyung moves back just a little bit, enough to lay his head down and look at his love.

“Have you always known you’re pretty?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung presses his lips together. He has to look down, away from Jungkook’s eyes. He does not answer, because he is not sure how. Jungkook just laughs softly at him and kisses his forehead.

“Do you not feel… strange,” Taehyung says hesitantly, “that we have such a large age gap? I mean, vampire age works differently and has less of a bearing on things, even though that is a very sizable age difference. But our human ages too… Forty-two and twenty-six are not exactly close…”

“I don’t care, sire,” Jungkook says. Taehyung looks at him. Jungkook shrugs. He is always shrugging, like everything is so easy. “I don’t really think about it. When I do, it’s because I like certain things about you because of it. I like the grey in your hair.” Jungkook's fingers run through his hair, where grey strands don’t often go unmissed, even if his hair is certainly more black than anything lighter. Except, “Especially this patch right here,” where the hair that frames his face around his right ear is a solid patch of grey, as if his hair has been bleached and dyed intentionally.

Jungkook’s fingers ghost over his forehead as he whispers, “I like the lines you have here,” where he has indents of wrinkles. “Here too, and when they’re deeper when you smile,” as fingers gently brush beside his eye where faint wrinkles have embedded themselves too.

“And I like the way you talk,” Jungkook says quietly, his hand trailing down to wrap around his body again. “Even though I tease you about it, I like it. It’s… cozy, somehow. And I like the way you treat me, how there’s always a gentlemanly feeling to it. You’re very poised, and it’s very sexy.”

Taehyung makes a very embarrassing sound, not at all poised or gentlemanly. “I don’t know about sexy,” he mutters.

“You are very sexy, sire. Trust me. But I don’t want to think about how sexy you are, because it will make me ungentlemanly.”

It makes Taehyung giggle, and he charges onto Jungkook, sending him onto his back so he can cling to him. He nuzzles in closely, cuddles right up to his fledgling. Their bond hums in happiness.

“Do you feel weird about it?” Jungkook asks. “I mean, I am young, so…” He sounds insecure, like being young somehow brings along a negative connotation with it.

“Not at all, my darling,” Taehyung says. “I would not wish to change a single thing about you, down to your age. I just would hate for you to feel uncomfortable that someone so much older than you wants to belong to you.”

“I’m not uncomfortable,” Jungkook says. He wraps his arms around him tighter, hooks a leg over him too so they’re properly wrapped together. “Very, very comfy actually.”

Taehyung smiles as he rubs his cheek against Jungkook’s chest. “Me too,” he says. “I love you, Jungkook. I had a very lovely night with you.”

“I love you, baby,” Jungkook says. Taehyung is not certain the feeling that comes with that name will ever go away. “Me too. Lots and lots of lovely nights ahead of us.”

Taehyung’s heart soars, the bond sings, his body thrums while he remains lying there, so comfortable and cozy and held. So much time ahead of them, with the two of them irrevocably in love. A shared life. Not two separate halves, but only one that is theirs. Taehyung tilts his head up, and he gently kisses Jungkook’s jaw before resting his head back down. “I love you, my darling,” he says again. “My little fledgling.”

“I love you, sire,” Jungkook says, kissing the top of his head.

Wrapped so fully in his fledgling’s arms, Taehyung drifts off. He dreams of their future together. There are moments that feel like they have been plucked from the past woven throughout, but most of them are forgotten by the time night falls again.

Chapter Text

“Namjoon-ah,” Taehyung says, knocking on his open office door. Namjoon looks up from his papers he is organizing – which he always seems to be doing in here, because he never stays on top of the organization. “Are you sure you transcribed these journals correctly? Or that you gave me the correct ones? The writer speaks of the bond, I believe, but it is not very similar to what Jungkook and I feel, and one of them is a human?”

Namjoon watches as he lowers himself in the chair across from his desk. Sounding as though he is choosing his words carefully, he asks, “In what ways is it different?”

“Well, the writer and I both speak of the warmth we feel inside of ourselves, but theirs feels more… natural, I suppose? The writer is undoubtedly in love, and it seems that the warmth they feel is the warmth of loving someone so deeply. And furthermore, since one of them is human, they do not have the sire-fledgling bond that Jungkook-ah and I have.”

Namjoon takes off his glasses. He cleans them with his shirt as he sits quietly, pensively. It is several seconds before he speaks. “I think you should continue reading the journals,” he says. “I… I think it is possible that you w-will recognize something similar.”

Taehyung looks down at the stack of paper in his hands. “Well, okay, but… I don’t see how our situations are similar if they are vampire and human and not sire and fledgling.” Namjoon remains silent and sets his glasses back on his nose. Taehyung just stands and bids Namjoon a good afternoon, then he returns back to his library.

He enters into the vast space, sunlight pouring in from the many windows now that it has been organized and tidied of the mess that was there before. He looks up to the second floor that overlooks the first, a walkway around the perimeter to lead them to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves while keeping the middle empty to overlook the bottom floor. The skylights shine onto the old, weathered spines, and the gentle heat from the winter sun brings out the smell of paper. Taehyung returns to his seat beside the window, out of the sun’s rays but overlooking the snowy back garden. Frost creeps along the bottom of the windows while last night’s snow still dusts the edges and the tops of what remains in the gardens.

Taehyung looks down at the journal entries in his lap and continues to read, smiling to himself as he watches these characters’ love story unfold. He wonders where they are now. The vampire is almost certainly still alive somewhere, and with the way their story has progressed, he assumes the human will have been turned as well. He wonders about them, and he hopes they are happy. That this happiness the writer has written of is still with them.

June 6th, 1901

I love him so dearly.

There is so much I have done in my life to make me undeserving of such gentleness. Undeserving of any love at all, even if it were violent and cruel. But to have found a love so gentle and tender, it seems as if the gods are playing a trick on me. They are giving me a glimpse of what I could have if I were a better person, before they take it away from me.

But when voicing these thoughts, he whispered to me, “I don’t have to be deserved to be here. I want to be here, whether it is deserved or not. All you must do is love me, and it makes you deserving enough.” If that is true and it is as simple as that, then that is easier than anything I have ever done. The love I have for him cannot even be written of. It feels as if it is so big that it has to have been given to him too, that the love I feel from him is my own looking back at me. No matter what he says, I do not deserve to be loved in this way, and it feels difficult to believe sometimes. This feeling in my chest, this warmth that I can feel when I look at him, when I merely think of him. It is almost too much to carry, to find a way to continue when something so soft surrounds me. He speaks of the same warmth in his chest, as if it is something we share, parts of each other we both hold.

Tonight, we spoke again of turning him.

I am afraid.

I do not know how to do it. I have bitten him many times, but that has only been to feed from him – something he insisted upon me doing until the scent of anybody else became tainted, because it is without the love and care that comes from my darling. I have just recently learned of my venom, when I was so relaxed while feeding that it came out without my doing. I do not know how to control it, and I do not know how much I must give him to turn him – if it is even that that will do so.

But even if I knew, I am afraid to taint something so wonderful.

It feels as if I have cheated, somehow. I have played with the strings of fate and veered from my path, undetected, and stumbled upon this boy. (Or really, he stumbled upon me.) It feels as if turning him, as if taking the life and soul from something so magical and ethereal, will ruin it all. He is so full of light, so full of energy and laughter, so full of life, and taking that from him would make it all go wrong. I was not meant to find him at all, so to turn him and bind him to being my own would make it all fall apart.

But the thought of living without him… It is too much to bear. He will grow older, and I will not. He will one day die, and I will not. I will be left here, and I do not know that I can continue with my life without him there. But I do not know how to end it either.

I do not know. All I know is that I love him, more than I could ever speak aloud, more than I can write, more than I thought that I could feel.

As Taehyung reads, he can feel their own bond relaxing. He can feel the tug loosen and loosen as his fledgling draws nearer. He can feel that ever present warmth spread and settle, finally sighing out fully when he is interrupted from his reading by a knock on the library door.

“You may come in, my darling,” Taehyung calls out. “You do not need to knock.” He sets the journals on the side table, watching his little fledgling enter timidly. “Why is my sweetheart being so shy, hm? I know what a little demon you are; you cannot fool me with your meekness.”

“Hey!” Jungkook says, quickly shuffling inside now. “Am not. I just didn’t want to bother you.”

Taehyung pats his legs, beckoning Jungkook over. Jungkook races across the room and seats himself in his lap. “You’re right, you are a perfect little angel, aren’t you, hm?” Jungkook nods, tucking himself beneath his chin like the little angel he is, just a boy wanting to be held. “You never need to knock in any room I am in. If I am there, you belong there too. And you could never be a bother, my love. Is there a reason you sought me out though?”

“Want you to rub my fangs,” he says quietly.

Taehyung holds back his coo, because he knows Jungkook gets embarrassed when he talks about how cute it is that he is teething. So he says, “Okay, my love. Sire will make it better.” Jungkook untucks himself from the way he curved into him, and he leans back and opens his mouth. Taehyung slides each of his index fingers into his mouth. He presses them against his gums, and Jungkook’s eyes flutter shut with a moan. He trails his fingers all the way up, then all the way down to the tip of his fangs that are dropped. “Does that feel good?” Jungkook’s nonstop moans are answer enough, but he nods too, barely able to remain sitting up. “Here, tuck yourself back under, my darling. Get comfortable.” Jungkook curls back into the ball he was in, his knees to his chest, his side against Taehyung’s chest, head tucked under his chin. Taehyung raises one of his hands, and he fits his thumb and index finger back in Jungkook’s mouth. He massages his gums in slow, gentle circles as Jungkook sighs in relief, melting into Taehyung.

The bond hums, purrs, unfurls and curls up like a cat napping in a windowpane of sunlight shining on the floor. “My little fledgling,” Taehyung murmurs. “Sire will always take care of you, darling. Always.” Jungkook makes a vague noise of acknowledgement, but mostly responds in his quietly sighing moans as his sire continues to rub his sore gums for him. He insists that it doesn’t feel the same when he does it himself, but Taehyung never even asked, because he feels lucky to be sought out and needed in this way. Even if Jungkook were able to provide the relief himself, Taehyung would insist on doing it anyway.

He grabs the journal entries he set down, and he continues to read as he massages his cuddly fledgling’s fangs. Namjoon did not transcribe this page; rather it is a copy of the original page of the journal, handwritten on a yellowed page. He notices that there is a time jump from the previous journal entry to this final one. The handwriting is a messy scribble, but it looks as though it is different from what he thinks would be an elegant scrawl. It grows worse and worse down the page. With a hint of dread, he reads.

August 31st, 1901

We were going to do it tonight. Turn him. I was going to turn him, and he would be with me forever. I would be with him for an eternity. I did not care if I was cheating fate; I did not care about anything but him. We decided on his birthday, my love joking that it would be his last and first birthday. Just one more day, and it would have been okay. I would not have found him in the street, his shirt soaked through with blood. He would have healed, or he would have been strong enough to prevent it before the knife sank into him. He would not look up at me, those eyes always so big, always sparkling, but this time with tears. I would not have watched those eyes go blurry. Fading in and out of focus before they looked up at me, no longer seeing. I would not have had to close his eyes, his beautiful eyes, for him, never to see them open again. I will never see those eyes again. The feeling of him, that feeling I felt in my chest, as if I was finally whole when we finally met, it faded. I could feel it slip away as I watched him do the same. Slowly, so slowly, fading into nothing. My love, my life, in my arms but no longer there, and in my heart no longer too. Half of me empty, half of me gone, the better half of me missing. And it will be this way forever. I am doomed to an eternity of life, and I must go on without the one who made that look like a blessing, rather than a curse. My love, my love, he is no longer here, and I can feel myself fading. I can feel it turning darker, and I welcome it.

My darling boy, my love, my love, my sweetheart, my love. You were the best part of me.

Taehyung tries to blink the tears from his eyes, the paper in his hands shaking.

That is not the ending he imagined when starting to read, following every day of the writer’s relationship, stretching two years back. It is like he could feel their happiness, their love, so big that it has to have still existed.

Taehyung wonders about the writer. He wonders if he is still out there. He wonders if he is okay, or if he is still swallowed by darkness. He thinks it is a fate he would wish for himself too, if he were to lose his little fledgling. He would wish for a lifetime of darkness, of letting the monster in him take over, of allowing himself to no longer exist, simply a deadly vampire and no longer Taehyung, no longer someone who once was loved as if he were anything but violence and cruelty.

He sets the papers down and wraps his free arm around Jungkook, holding him close as if he cannot be taken from him this way.

He knows they will not follow the same fate as those he read about. If Jungkook were harmed, he would heal. If a greater, more intentional harm were to threaten him, he would be able to put up a fair – and most likely stronger – fight. And he has Taehyung, who would do anything in the world to keep him, murder being the smallest price he’d pay to keep him safe.

He kisses the side of Jungkook’s head, trying to reassure himself that they are okay. That this will always be their life. He listens for whether Jungkook is still awake, and some of the fear and heaviness lift from him when he realizes that he very much still is, still moaning and sighing in bliss as his gums are massaged. It is impossible to feel anything bad for very long when he has such a silly, sweet little fledgling with him.

That effect is even more potent when suddenly Jungkook lifts his head and sinks his fangs into his neck – sudden attacks being something he has started doing again, but because he thinks it is funny or because he knows he can, rather than because he lacks self control. Taehyung sighs and tilts his head, tutting amusedly. “I rub your fangs and this is how you repay me,” he gently scolds without any real disapproval behind it. “And you insisted on not being a little demon earlier too.” He can feel Jungkook’s breath against his skin as he laughs as much as he is able to while drinking his blood.

That feeling in his chest only grows, the bond thrumming like his heartbeat knowing he is feeding his fledgling, that Jungkook will be sated and full and happy, alive because of him in more ways than one. He raises a hand and pets Jungkook’s hair, feeling a hum from Jungkook and inside of him as he feeds.

“If you would like, you may keep your fangs in me after you are done feeding,” Taehyung suggests. “I think it would feel good for you, alleviate some of the pains of your teething.”

Jungkook slides his fangs out and licks the wounds closed though. He leans back to look at him. “Really?” he asks. A bit of blood still colors his bottom lip. Taehyung brushes his thumb across it to gather it, and he pushes his thumb into Jungkook’s mouth for him to lick off. His eyes follow the movement, his lips wrapped around, sucking on it.

He blinks several times to come back to himself. “Yes,” he finally says, not looking at Jungkook’s eyes because he knows he will be teased. “Does it not feel better as you feed?”

“Oh, um, I don’t know. I guess I’m too focused on how good you taste to notice that…”

“Well if you would like to try it out, you may bite me, darling. Not that you need any invitation or permission to do so.” He tugs on his earlobe like he often does. “If you would rather me continue to rub your gums though, I will be happy to.”

Jungkook adjusts around, mimicking sticking his head in Taehyung’s neck, or bringing his arm to his lips to see what is most comfortable to keep his fangs warm. Before he chooses one though, he asks, “You’ll always be my sire, but will I always be a fledgling?”

Taehyung pets Jungkook’s hair, looking at his sweet, curious boy. “You will one day grow out of that as you age and become older, but you will still always be my little fledgling. So perhaps not to others, but always to me.”

“Good,” Jungkook says. He kisses his palm. “Wanna always be your fledgling. Would it hurt if I bit your hand?”

Taehyung laughs. “Probably. I would prefer for you to choose somewhere else to bite.”

“Was just wondering,” Jungkook mumbles.

“Would it not hurt if I bit your hand?”

“Oh, you’re right…”

Jungkook eventually settles on using his forearm once he curls back up. He brings it to his lips and sweetly kisses where he will bite, like he often does. He sinks his fangs in, pushing out the lightest hint of venom at first since his fangs will remain there and he is sweet enough to dull any sting. Then he relaxes, and he does not drink. He does not even moan or sigh, he just goes lax and dazed. Taehyung chuckles and brushes his fingers through Jungkook’s long hair. “My darling boy,” he whispers. “My little fledgling. How I love you.”

Taehyung thinks he would like to take a nap. The afternoon has not yet faded into evening, and he and Jungkook are often asleep at this hour most days. It is nice in the sun-warmed library, and he has his warm little fledgling warming his fangs inside of him. Taehyung thinks he might have fallen asleep too. So Taehyung kisses the side of Jungkook’s head, rests his cheek there, and closes his eyes.

– ☾ –

He wakes up with a start when the library door slams open. Jungkook jumps too, causing him to tug his fangs back and tear larger holes in him rather than slide them out smoothly. Taehyung hisses in pain, and Jungkook quickly licks them closed so they will heal before saying frantically, “I’m sorry, sire. I’m sorry.”

Taehyung takes his hand and squeezes it. “It is okay, my darling. I know it was an accident.”

He turns to Jimin, Hoseok, and Yoongi who have all spilled into the room. Before he can speak, Jimin smirks and says, “Was he fangwarming you?”

“Not the time, Jimin-ah,” Hoseok scolds, pulling a prompt apology from Jimin.

“Is everything–” He cuts his question off when he hears a burst of many different noises that upset the quiet of the manor. Noises from many different people who do not belong here.

Taehyung quickly stands with Jungkook in his arms, and he sets him on the chair. He tilts his head up with his palms on his cheeks. “Stay here, my love. I will be back soon,” he says. He kisses his lips, and he rushes out of the room before Jungkook can protest.

“Wait, you guys kiss now?!” Jimin squawks as he follows after him. It’s met with another, “Not the time, Jimin-ah,” this time from Yoongi.

“What is happening?” Taehyung asks harshly, walking at a normal pace so he knows what he will be walking into.

“Baekhyun,” Jimin says. A low growl rumbles in Taehyung’s chest violently enough that it can be heard by those around him. “He showed up. With three fledglings. It seems like they were literally just turned. Him and Seokjin and Namjoon are trying to control them while we went to get you.”

“Why would he come here after what happened last time?” Taehyung asks sharply, even though he thinks they all know the answer.

He thinks they know too why he is here so often at all. Why he strangely has a fleet of young vampires always needing to be controlled. It is not that he stumbles upon them and takes them in like Taehyung has done when his friends have shown up at his manor. It is not that he tries to control them himself before enlisting help. It is that he is the reason they need help, because he is sure it wasn’t long ago that they were human.

They reach the foyer of the manor, where Namjoon, Seokjin, and Baekhyun have just barely managed to wrangle the newborns. The self-satisfied look on Baekhyun’s face when he sees Taehyung makes something in him shift. He becomes less Taehyung and more the vampire that is centuries old. He watches with satisfaction the way the look on Baekhyun’s face falters when he sees the shift in Taehyung. Their friends all take a step back as Taehyung stalks closer.

“You have seen me kill,” he says lowly. “You have seen that it does not weigh on my mind,” a lie, but Baekhyun does not know that, “and you have seen how easy it is, how I do not hesitate. And you returned to the manor despite that.”

Baekhyun smirks. “Yes.”

The newborn in his hold lunges for Taehyung. Taehyung grabs him by the neck, yanking him from Baekhyun. His hand reaches to grab ahold of their hair, needing some silence in the fucking manor, but he’s stopped before he can pull by Namjoon saying, “Tae! Stop! They don’t want to be like this! It wasn’t their choice!”

Taehyung growls, his body trembling from the willpower it takes to hold back the desire to rid his life of the annoyance. He shoves the newborn in the direction of his friends. “Take care of it,” he shouts. He turns back to Baekhyun as the newborns thrash and hiss around him. He steps closer. Tilts his head to the side. “It was your choice though,” he says, a slow smile spreading on his face. He reaches out.

His hatred alone is enough to drive him to kill; even mere annoyance is all he needs. But as soon as he heard the violent noises, his head flashed with the journal entries he had just read. The writer and his love who died in his arms. The descriptions of their love, and the descriptions of his loss so personal, everything so full of love and despair that he could feel it too. The way it brought tears to his eyes and made him tighten his arms around his own love. He thinks of his fledgling curled up in his lap as his sire massaged his gums, tucked up neat and small. How vulnerable he was, how vulnerable he is, how it would be so easy to lose him to someone who has the strength to do what it takes. How easy this can be taken, how easily Jungkook’s life can end, what a tragedy that would be to the world, to snuff out a light so bright. How it would be Taehyung’s ruin. How it would be everyone else’s too, because he does not know what would become of him. What he would do to numb the pain, if the pain itself did not kill him before he did it to others.

In the foyer, as if his fears summoned him to mock him, Jungkook appears. Taehyung could feel him getting closer before he made himself known, the way it only made the bond tremble with fear rather than helping soothe any of it. “Tae–” he starts to say.

“Go back to the library,” Taehyung shouts, his voice sharp and cold. He looks over his shoulder, eyes surely a deep red, his face so frightful and commanding it makes Jungkook stagger a step back. “Go.”

He cannot see if Jungkook listens, because Baekhyun chuckles. Taehyung whips his head back around, seeing him looking over his shoulder at Jungkook. Taehyung grabs him by his face, digging his nails in as he forces his head forward. “Do not look at him,” his voice lower than it has ever been, the threat so strong that it cannot even be shouted.

“Tae–” someone starts to say as a hand lands on his shoulder. He pushes whoever is trying to stop him, sending them crashing into the wall behind him with an oof.

Taehyung recognizes that sound though. His head whips around, and he sees Jungkook collapsed onto the floor, an indent in the wall where his head must have been. He stands slowly, then he stumbles. He blinks repeatedly, shaking his head as if trying to clear away the stars in his vision.

Taehyung snaps back into himself, body turning cold. “D-Darling?” he says, voice trembling. He lets go of Baekhyun without a second thought. He rushes to Jungkook. He rests his hands on his cheeks and tilts his head up so he’ll look at him. “My love? Are you okay? I’m so sorry, my sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” Jungkook is unsteady on his feet, and it is unlike their kind. Jungkook should have gotten up and brushed himself off like nothing happened. He should not be swaying with an unfocused gaze.

He would not look up at me, those eyes always so big, always sparkling, but this time with tears. I would not have watched those eyes go blurry. Fading in and out of focus before they looked up at me, no longer seeing.

“My darling, my love, come on, let’s go back to our room.” Taehyung is trembling, so much that he doesn’t know how he will be able to lead them both back. He puts Jungkook’s arm around his shoulders and holds Jungkook by the waist, slowly walking them forward. He would like to carry him and get there sooner, but he does not want to upset his already-spinning head further.

“Taehyung, we need your h–” Namjoon tries to say amidst the sounds of rabid newborns that he realizes are still there, but Taehyung cuts him off.

“Handle it,” he says. “I do not care if you kill them. I do not care what you do. Handle it.”

He leaves the noise and the chaos behind, walking them further into the house until it gets quieter and quieter. They enter the safety of their bedroom, and he closes and locks the door. With shaking hands, he gently helps Jungkook lie in bed. He gets him comfortable for him, then he picks up the pillow his head is on, and he sets it on his lap. He buries his fingers in Jungkook’s hair and starts to massage his head for him, trying to take the ache away from the trauma it faced.

Every passing second is spent trying to swallow his sobs. Spent trying to stop his hands from trembling so he can take care of Jungkook better. “My love,” he whispers, two fingers pressed against his temples to massage in circles. “I am so sorry, my darling. It was just–I just wanted to protect you, b-but I am what h-hurt you. I am so sorry, Jungkook. I love you. I love you.” He watches as Jungkook raises one of his hands. It is weak and slow as he reaches above him. He takes one of Taehyung’s hands, and he kisses his palm. It finally brings a sob from Taehyung’s chest. Jungkook rests their hands on his chest, against his heart. “I do not deserve your gentleness, my darling boy.” He continues to massage his head until he can tell Jungkook has fallen asleep. He continues after that too. He continues doing it until the sun finally sets hours later, their bedroom darkening as he looks down at Jungkook while he rests.

He does not know why he did not pull himself back together so quickly. Perhaps it is because he is still a young fledgling, but they generally have more of a quick reaction time to healing because of the situations they tend to find themselves in.

He can still vaguely hear chaotic sounds from somewhere in the manor, but he could not reach for them even if he wanted to. His head is too clouded with despair and regret while focused on every little sound Jungkook might make. He tries to shut those feelings off so he can care for his boy better, but it is hard to do when they are taking over him so fully. This is his fledgling, this is his love, he cannot be the one responsible for his pain. He cannot be the one who has hurt him when all he wants to do is protect him from danger. Perhaps–perhaps the monster inside of him is too powerful, perhaps he is being shown that he will never be fully capable of the gentleness needed to love someone so special. He is not deserving of this boy on the very best of his days, so now what will happen?

Hours later, when Taehyung is so close to being a shell of who he became while Jungkook still loved him, his fledgling begins to stir. It starts with his eyes moving from beneath his eyelids, then a groan as he fully wakes without opening his eyes yet.

“S-Sire?” he asks.

Taehyung feels like he might be sick. He does not deserve to be called that. He cups his cheek. “Right here, my love,” he says softly from above him. “How are you feeling?” Taehyung’s fingers move down to his temples again to rub in slow, firm circles.

“Headache kinda,” Jungkook mutters. He turns onto his side and buries his face against Taehyung’s stomach. He lifts his sweater, then blows a raspberry on him. It makes Taehyung squirm as he giggles in surprise. Then his heart begins to ache even worse. He does not deserve his sweetness, his silliness. Jungkook is wrong; he should be deserved, his presence should be given as an honor, and he is not deserving.

“Do you remember what happened?” Taehyung asks, terrified of either answer.

“Mhm,” Jungkook nods.

Taehyung swallows. “My sweetheart, I am so sorry,” he says, using every bit of his effort to not allow his voice to crack. “I’m–I’m so sorry. If I knew that was you, I would have never, ever pushed you away.” He knows he shouldn’t have done it to anybody it could have been, but still. “I do not wish to make excuses, but I was scared of you being there because of what could have happened. I cannot lose you, my love, I can’t.” He recalls again the journals he read just minutes prior – the reason he did respond that way – and tears appear in his eyes. The desperation, the despair, the mourning when it had only just begun. He–he can’t. He can’t lose his boy.

“I know,” Jungkook says. “I know that’s why you did it and you wouldn’t otherwise, or if you knew it was me. It’s okay.”

“Jungkook-ah,” Taehyung says firmly. “I was partially joking before, but you should not be so forgiving and accepting. You should not be okay with the fact that I used to stalk you, or that you have seen me murder in front of you, let alone that fact that I’ve done so to probably hundreds of people. And now that I’ve abused you–”

“Okay,” Jungkook says. “So you’re a stalker and a murderer and that’s bad, so do you want me to leave? Should I go because I should think you’re a bad person? I’ll go and leave and you’ll never see me again?”

Taehyung curls his hands into fists to try to stop their trembling. “W-Well…” It would be the sane, understandable thing to do, but, “No…” he says quietly. He is so selfish. He is not good.

Jungkook sits up and looks at him. His hair is a bit of a fluffy mess from Taehyung running his fingers through it for hours, so Taehyung reaches out to pet it down. “Then stop telling me I shouldn’t be forgiving and accepting,” Jungkook says, his voice firm now. “I know the things you’ve done are bad. I’m not gaslighting myself and trying to pretend they aren’t. I know they’re bad. But I also know you and who you are. You can’t change what’s in your past, and you’re a vampire. It’s in our nature to be like that, and sometimes you lose the fight. You are the one who taught me that. Because I almost have too before you pulled me back, and it doesn’t make me a bad person.”

“I’ve murdered people while being completely lucid,” Taehyung says. “Only a couple of months ago.”

“And you were doing it to protect me. Not just for fun.” Well, it was a little sadistically fun to protect Jungkook that much, but it is not as if he was doing it as a hobby. “And that’s why you were stalking me too. Not because you planned on killing me or turning me, or for any bad reasons. But because you were keeping me safe. And maybe the methods are a little unconventional–and illegal,” a snort from Taehyung, and a quiet laugh from Jungkook, “but it just is what it is. I know that you’re good, and that you love me, and that you’d never hurt me. I’m not afraid of you. I feel safer now than I ever have in my life. And it’s not because I’m a vampire now and pretty indestructible, but because I’m with you.”

“I did hurt you though…” Taehyung says.

“We already went over that,” Jungkook says exasperatedly. “No more about that. I would throw you through a window to protect you.”

Taehyung huffs. Jungkook reaches out and brushes a tear from his cheek. “Will you listen to me when I tell you to stay put like I did earlier?”

“Probably not.”

Taehyung laughs and shakes his head. His headstrong little fledgling. “It is to keep you safe.”

“I can keep myself safe, and who’s keeping you safe then too? You’re the sire, but you’re my sire, and I care about you in the same ways a sire is supposed to care about their fledgling.”

Taehyung is not sure he believes in that. He is the sire, and he is to devote his life to his fledgling for as long as he will allow it. He is meant to care for him in any and every way he needs, not receive it from his fledgling, and not throw him into a wall.

“What happened?” Jungkook asks. “Before I came out. Why are they here?”

Taehyung sighs. He evens out his emotions for a few seconds, telling himself he will never, ever allow his emotions or the threat of who he is come out with Jungkook near. He did not mean to do so to begin with, but now the possibility will be unthinkable.

“Baekhyun showed up with three newborn vampires,” Taehyung says. “It was made clear last time that he is not welcome here, and that this is not a safe space for newborns – considering I killed the last one we had here. I think we all figured out at once that he has so many newborns he is unable to control not because he does the same work as Namjoon and turns to him when he needs more help, but because he turns them himself to have rabid vampires to bring here.”

Jungkook’s eyes are wide. “What?” he asks. “Like he just grabs humans and turns them?”

Taehyung shrugs. “I don’t know for sure, but I believe so.”

“What the fuck,” Jungkook says. “Why?”

Taehyung sighs. “He has always had a fixation on me, and I suppose he needed an excuse to be able to stay here, so he did what he needed to do to achieve that.”

“Well, at least that makes a little bit of sense,” Jungkook mutters. Taehyung raises an eyebrow. “Well, you’re you. I wouldn’t do things to innocent people to get to you, but I’d probably do some not-very-great things.”

Taehyung shakes his head with a huff. “You don’t need to do anything, because I will be at your service for the rest of eternity.”

“Keep rubbing my head then.”

Taehyung chuckles. “As you wish, master,” he says, resuming rubbing Jungkook’s head like he has been doing for hours.

He just… he regrets what he did to Jungkook and that feeling will always be with him, but he is afraid that he would do it again to protect him. He would do almost anything to protect him, even if it meant hurting Jungkook in some way. He knows that is not a very good mindset to have, and maybe it would have been different on other days. He had just been reading the journals Namjoon had given him, and he felt that desperation the writer had. That crushing sadness that was slowly ebbing into numbness, allowing the monster within him to take over. It felt so familiar because of how visceral the writing was, it felt even more so when Jungkook came out of the library where it was dangerous, and he could have lost him again.

His hand pauses its trail through Jungkook’s hair. I could have lost him again. His eyebrows deeply furrow. These agains and agains and agains that keep appearing. It is just because of how the writer wrote it, that he was able to feel his desperate pain, and it’s gotten him mixed up.

There is a gentle knock on the door. “Come in,” Taehyung says softly, not wanting to disturb Jungkook’s shallow sleep.

Jimin walks into the room. His face holds none of the impish mischief or good naturedness it usually does. There is a firmness to his jaw and a tension between his shoulders. His pink hair is a mess from wrestling with three newborns, and Taehyung spots a tear in the collar of his shirt as well. He sits down on the side of the bed with a sigh. “How are you feeling?” he asks Jungkook first.

“Feel fine again,” Jungkook says. “I’m gonna keep telling Tae my head hurts though so he’ll keep doing this.”

Taehyung laughs. He takes a hold of Jungkook’s earlobe and gently tugs. “Silly fledgling,” he says. “Anything you could ask for, I will give it to you. No need to make me worry when it is all I do to begin with.” He looks at Jimin. “So…?”

Jimin sighs again. “He’ll be staying,” he says. “At least until now. At least until the fledglings are under control. Namjoon is too good to send them away right now, and I’m not against it really; they were innocent humans turned and forced to be like this, struggling and scared. But we agreed to make it clear that after this, he will not be welcome back under any circumstances – he could bring an army of them, and he will not be allowed anywhere near here.”

Taehyung assumed he would be staying for that very reason – that Namjoon is too good of a person to send them away, especially learning that it isn’t the newborns’ fault that they are even in this situation to begin with. Still, he isn’t happy to hear it.

“Is everyone of the same belief as to why he is so often here with newborns in need of help?”

“Y–”

“How come you call them newborns, but you call me a fledgling?” Jungkook interrupts.

Some of Jimin’s slyness comes back. “Yes, Taehyung, why is that?” he asks, as if Taehyung would not willingly speak on his love for Jungkook in front of the whole world for hours.

“Well, my little fledgling,” Taehyung says, running his finger up and down the slope of his nose. “It is b–ow!” He jumps feeling a brief sting on the pad of his finger where Jungkook punctured it with his fang, then quickly licked it to close it up.

Before Taehyung can scold him much too softly to be anything near a scolding and sound much more like being fondly entertained by him, Jimin says, “Jungkook, if you knew Tae before he met you…” He shakes his head, amused and exasperated. “If you knew him like I know him, you would see just how insane it is that he lets you do things like that.”

Jungkook just shrugs, looking very pleased with himself. Taehyung probably would be too if he had an ancient, powerful vampire wrapped around his finger and knew it. Taehyung tuts. “I rub your fangs and your head for you and this is how you repay me,” he playfully scolds again.

“‘Newborn’ is kind of a derogatory word for young vampires,” Jimin says. He wasn’t going to say that exactly, but it is true. “I’ve never even heard him say fledgling until you. And he says it so fondly.”

Jungkook looks up at him, looking very pleased with himself again. “It is because I am very fond of my bratty little fledgling,” Taehyung says, squishing Jungkook’s cheeks together to make them push out like a pouty fish. He turns back to Jimin to resume the conversation.

“Anyway, yeah, everybody kind of realizes that that’s why he’s been here,” Jimin says. “Probably should have sooner, but he came just the right amount that it seemed like he was doing something good rather than really bad.”

“Can I kill him?” Taehyung asks, which makes Jungkook burst out laughing. Taehyung does not even scold him for being entertained by his murderous sire, since really he’s the one who should be scolded.

And where he normally would be, Jimin says, “Not right now.” Taehyung’s eyebrows shoot up. “Like, if he tries to come back again once we’ve made it clear he’s not welcome back, then… it’d probably be for the better, right? Like, without having the excuse to come see you, it seems like he wouldn’t be turning innocent humans. So hopefully that’s what happens. But if it doesn’t and he still continues doing this shit, then, I mean, it’d be one life ended that’d save maybe hundreds more over the course of time. So…”

Many of Taehyung’s reasons for wanting to kill him are selfish – the leading being that he really just does not like him – but that one is now at the top too, because it’s true. He supposes he can hold off on it for now. But, “If he does so much as even look at Jungkook a certain way…” The rest is unspoken, and Jimin nods his agreement. Jungkook is looking up at him with stars in his eyes, because his fledgling isn’t quite right in the head, but Taehyung really isn’t either, he supposes.

“How did you even meet him?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung sighs. “It was a long time ago. Now why are you pouting, little fledgling? The story has not even started yet.”

“Just remembered people have known you longer than I’ve known you,” Jungkook mutters. “And a lot longer too!”

Jimin snickers as Taehyung pets Jungkook’s hair. “I’ve got such a pouty little fledgling today,” Taehyung coos. Jungkook whining to him to rub his gums earlier, to all of this now. It does make sense though, now that he thinks about it. Jungkook has been so high-energy in addition to his teething. Jungkook’s progression through vampirehood is so strange compared to others that Taehyung never really realizes what stages he is in. And right now he seems to be in the whiny period of being a fledgling, where he’s needier and more moody and even more attached to his sire than usual. It’s like Taehyung is taking care of the adult vampire version of a little toddler. “You are right, but only the people who we share a home with are people I have wanted to know. And you are not jealous of Jimin, are you?”

He holds back his laugh when he sees Jungkook side-eye Jimin, then mumble, “No.”

“Everyone else has been an unwelcome inconvenience, little love,” Taehyung says. “You, however, are the brightest light my life has ever had. The warmest love. And I am happy for an eternity of life, because it means I get to spend it with you as my little fledgling. Which you always will be, even when you have gotten as old as I am now.”

Jungkook’s face is bright red, and Taehyung can feel how embarrassed he is for this to be happening with Jimin here. But even more than that, Taehyung can feel how absolutely pleased he is. And when Taehyung looks at Jimin, Jimin doesn’t even look like he wants to tease. Taehyung doesn’t need a bond with his best friend to feel the things he does; it just happens naturally when loving someone so closely. He can feel Jimin’s softness when looking at them.

“I met Baekhyun through Namjoon,” Taehyung says. “Baekhyun did first come to him with genuine intentions, because someone he knew was having a difficult time getting through her initial years as a newborn, so he sought out help. And then he and I met, and it has led all of us here. I do not know why he took a liking to me, but it proves just how shallow he is, because I was the most unpleasant person there was.

“He had more newborns that needed help, and we were told that he was doing the same work as Namjoon, but he did not have the same patience and skills as he did, so sometimes he sought out his aide. Now we know that that was not the case. Perhaps we should have known that he did not have altruistic intentions. But, as Jimin said, he came by just enough to not raise suspicions. I could tell from the first meeting that he had a fascination with me, and it grew to the point of how it is recently. Offering himself for me to feed from, saying–”

Jungkook sits up so quickly Taehyung did not even see him move. “Offering himself?” he says, his voice sharp. “He’s a vampire.” Taehyung grimaces, nodding with disgust. He watches Jungkook’s eyes turn red. His jaw clenches, fingers curling into fists. Taehyung holds his laugh back. He is very endeared by this period of Jungkook’s fledglinghood.

“Come here, little darling,” he says. “Let’s all settle in.” Jimin happily crawls up the bed and seats himself at the bottom of it, his back against the footboard. Taehyung does the same at the top of his bed, with plenty of space between them because of how big the bed is. He spreads his legs and says, “Come here, my love.” Still looking angry, Jungkook seats himself between his legs. He sits sideways and leans his side against Taehyung’s chest, head tucked under his chin as Taehyung holds him close. He is so happy his cuddly baby does not mind doing this in front of Jimin – both because it means he is not ashamed of Taehyung, and he is not ashamed of the things he needs.

Taehyung lifts his arm and says, “You may alleviate some of the discomfort on your fangs, if you’d like.” Before he’s even finished the sentence, Jungkook’s fangs are buried in his arm. He sighs in relief.

“Now no one can tease me by calling me a teenager since we have a toddler now,” Jimin says. Jungkook very weakly growls, but he is mostly too far up in heaven from having his fangs buried in his sire’s arm to do a full one.

Taehyung’s hand runs up and down Jungkook’s back. “I will be happy if his toddler stage lasts forever if it means he will seek his sire out so much.” It feels so good to be needed by Jungkook. He doesn’t ever want it to end.

Before he can continue with the story, he and Jimin both freeze when they hear a strange sound. Their eyes dart down to Jungkook. Taehyung cannot see his face since he is tucked under his chin, but Jimin whispers, “His eyes are closed.” They blink at each other. “Is he…”

Taehyung presses his lips together. Tears begin to swim in his eyes. “I think so,” he says, his voice cracking. He wraps his other arm tightly around Jungkook. He pulls him closer to him as he buries his nose in his hair and squeezes his eyes closed. It is unmistakable though, he can feel it against his arm around his back, against his arm in Jungkook’s mouth, against his chest that Jungkook is leaning into.

“I didn’t even–I thought it was a myth,” Jimin says. He sounds just as incredulous as Taehyung feels.

“Me too,” Taehyung whispers. But that’s undoubtedly what it is. A low rumble of Jungkook purring against him.

There are records of vampires occasionally purring, according to some historians (and Namjoon as well), from various writings of literature amassed through the centuries. It has never made sense to Taehyung, or to most vampires, because none in modern history have experienced it to anyone’s knowledge. He supposes, though, that many “monsters,” whether they exist within the bounds of nature or out of it like them, are able to purr. The idea of it has seemed more a piece of folklore than something that could be real. But Jungkook is purring.

He’s… he’s so happy being here with Taehyung that it made him start to purr?

Taehyung holds him closer. “My sweet boy,” he whispers, pressing a kiss against his temple. Jungkook slides his fangs out of him. He doesn’t lick the wound closed, he just tilts his head up. Taehyung gives him what he wants, because he always will. Especially when it’s as simple as a kiss. “Will you rub my gums now?” Jungkook asks.

“Of course, my love,” Taehyung says softly. “Can you please lick where you bit me first?”

“Oh!” Jungkook says. He quickly licks across the puncture holes, then he licks the blood that trickled from them too. “Sorry.”

“My darling,” Taehyung says. He brushes his fingers through his hair. “Have you noticed that you’re purring?”

Jungkook blinks at him, then his face becomes completely confused when he realizes. “I’m–what–why am I purring?”

“Well, I am sure you know why cats purr, right?” Taehyung tucks a lock of Jungkook’s hair behind his ear. “Are you happy, sweetheart?”

“Well, yeah, of course,” Jungkook says. Just that is enough to be able to send Taehyung into a fit of tears, but knowing it so much that it has made Jungkook purr? “Do vampires purr?”

“Well, generally, no,” Taehyung says. “But you must be especially happy.”

“I am,” Jungkook says. Then his eyebrows furrow and he assumes an offended expression. “Why aren’t you purring? Aren’t you happy with me?”

Taehyung knows this time in his fledglinghood is meant to be difficult, but it is just so sweet to him. “Very happy with you, my darling,” Taehyung chuckles. “I believe it is probably because you are so young, and because you have a sire to care for you. You know that you are safe, and cared for, and protected, and loved. So very loved. Or at least I hope you know that.”

“He must know it enough to be able to purr,” Jimin quietly pipes in.

Jungkook just tucks himself back under his chin where he was. “I do know that,” he says. Then he takes Taehyung’s hand and brings it to his mouth. He presses Taehyung’s finger and thumb right where he wants them on his gums, a silent demand. Taehyung just chuckles to himself again, because his entire purpose in life has become serving his little fledgling, whether he asks sweetly or demands it. He applies the lightest of pressure against Jungkook’s gums and starts to move his finger and thumb in gentle circles. Jungkook loudly moans, then it fizzles into quieter ones, then sighs, then silent bliss as his teething pains are alleviated for now.

“My sweet little fledgling,” Taehyung whispers to him. He kisses his head. “Sire loves you so much, my angel.” Jungkook doesn’t respond, but Taehyung can feel it, can feel that Jungkook loves him too. Especially when Jungkook begins to quietly purr again.

He looks back at Jimin, who is just watching the two of them softly. Taehyung tries to recall what they were talking about. They were talking about how Taehyung and Baekhyun met, but he thinks talking about anything will be lost on Jungkook like this, so he asks, “How long do you think they’ll be staying? And why does Baekhyun need to stay with them?”

“I don’t know how long they’ll be here,” Jimin says. “I can’t imagine it’ll be short though, because it’s literally like he grabbed them and turned them on the way to the manor. And Namjoon wanted to talk about it with you, but he said he doesn’t want to make Baekhyun leave because then he’d be sticking us with them, you know? Like, at least if he stays, he’ll take the fledglings with him when he goes. Whatever happens to them after, who knows, but at least it seems like they stay with him. If he leaves though, then we’re just stuck with these strangers. And I don’t think you want to take any strangers in permanently.”

“I do not,” Taehyung says. He applies a little bit more pressure onto Jungkook’s gums, enough to try to rub the ache away rather than just alleviate the pain. Jungkook quietly whimpers from the initial discomfort, then it fades back out into sighs. Jungkook’s fangs are dropped like this, and it is so very cute. He really is just like a little baby like this, being cared for by his sire. “I suppose it won’t be too difficult to pretend like he is not here. We can just spend the day in my room and go out at night.” All things with the knowledge that Baekhyun is somewhere in the manor, definitely listening to every sound that comes from this wing of it. Taehyung doesn’t mind staying in his room for days on end – could probably do it for months, if not years – but he is Taehyung, not the purring, growing, energetic fledgling in his arms whose gums are being rubbed. God, the purring. Taehyung isn’t certain that he will ever get over that. He knows he’ll probably sob about it whenever Jimin leaves.

Jungkook isn’t exactly the type of person who seems like he would do well in calm containment – at least not when he is this young. They will figure it out. His fledgling seems quite content as he is right now. Taehyung looks down at him in his arms, and he almost jumps when he sees Jungkook looking up at him. Big dark eyes, looking rather sleepy, but very alert as they watch him.

Taehyung takes his fingers out of Jungkook’s mouth, then he closes Jungkook’s mouth for him. He starts to massage his gums from the outside, pressing his fingers in the space between his cute nose and pretty lips. “Does my baby fledgling want to take a nap?” Taehyung asks. It’s something he’s asked many times before, but saying it now just makes it so– Jungkook is his baby. He’s his baby. Jungkook’s blinks are slow and sleepy, as is his nod.

“Can I nap with you guys?” Jimin asks.

“O-Oh, well,” Taehyung stammers. He and Jimin have had many sleepovers before, but he did not have a pouty fledgling before. “That’s okay with me.” He looks at Jungkook, who has already burrowed himself under the blankets and gives a sleepy grunt of acknowledgement.

Taehyung gets off of the bed while Jimin settles in too. He turns all of the lamps around the room off, then he closes the curtains, letting the darkness settle over them.

When he returns and lies down in the empty space between his two loves, Jungkook rolls entirely over him into the middle of the bed, so he is between him and Jimin. Taehyung sees Jimin pressing his lips together to hold in his laugh as Jungkook lies halfway on top of Taehyung. “I’m all yours, darling boy,” Taehyung reminds him as he holds him close. He kisses his temple, then says, “Goodnight to you both. I love you.”

“Love you, Taetae,” Jimin says. “Love you, Jungkookie.”

Another sleepy grunt from Jungkook that makes Jimin laugh. Taehyung can still feel his love, and he’s sure Jimin can too even if without a bond.

Chapter Text

Taehyung throws the things he needs into his bag, barely even able to remember what those things are because of how uneasy he feels. Wallet, keys to the hospital just in case, a face mask to be safe, what else, what else? “You’ve made these hospital runs many times before,” Jimin says. “You know how fast and easy they are.”

“Yeah, but an hour is still an hour apart from Jungkook,” Taehyung says. He tries to keep the fear from his tone because of how disproportionate it seems to the situation, but it doesn’t work.

“And you guys have spent an entire day apart before,” Hoseok reminds him. “For part of it, we even took Jungkook on a walk and got near the city. And it went completely okay. And Jungkook will be here with us and we’ll be playing video games, so he won’t even be able to feel any panic that you’re gone.”

“Do you want me to come with?” Jimin asks him softly. “I won’t be able to be near the actual hospital, but I can be there with you on the way there and back.”

Taehyung sighs. “No, it’s okay. It’ll be okay.” It’s daytime anyway and they need blood now, so it can’t wait until nighttime for Jimin to be able to accompany him. Something in him just tells him it won’t be okay, but he knows it’s just his usual sire anxiety. He’s not worried about Jungkook being here with Baekhyun – wherever he is in the manor – because he knows Jungkook will have their friends with him. He’s just nervous being apart from his fledgling.

He looks himself over in the mirror, making sure he looks okay. He is dressed casually in a brown sweater and black pants – not picking his nicest options for either things so he doesn’t stand out more than he already tends to. He moves some of his wavy hair out from in front of his eyes so he does not look so shifty and won’t be watched suspiciously.

He steps out of his closet. He sees Hoseok and Jimin watching him from where they’re sitting on his bed – looking like colorful reflections of one another. Jungkook is not even here as he got ready. He is off in the manor somewhere with their other friends, because he is going to be okay, and being apart is not the big deal it once was. They spend much of their days separate when hanging out with their friends, and it is normal and okay. Everything will be okay. He just doesn’t like leaving his fledgling is all.

“Could you please tell Jungkook that I am leaving?” he asks his friends. He’d normally do it himself, but he is trying to avoid Baekhyun as much as he can. He doesn’t let himself think about how this is his manor and he’s having to do this in his home, because if he did think about it, he would do something bad.

Jimin and Hoseok leave, and Jungkook is standing in front of him only a moment later. “Hi,” he says. He just–he looks so happy. Nothing is even happening, and he looks so happy. Taehyung remembers watching him as he slept on the park bench, and the few times he saw him awake. How defeated he looked, how small and sad.

Now he just looks happy, and warm, and healthy – as much as those last two can be true for a vampire.

“Hello, my love,” Taehyung says. “I am leaving. I will be back in around an hour.”

“Okay,” Jungkook says. The word sounds small and sad as if they’ve been clung together all day and Jungkook didn’t need to be retrieved.

“Well, are you going to give your sire a hug before he goes?” Taehyung says. As soon as the sentence is through, he stumbles back with an oof when he has a clingy little fledgling wrapped around him – arms and legs. Jungkook nuzzles into him. Taehyung really likes this phase of his.

“I’ll miss you, sire,” he says.

“I will miss you too, my little fledgling. You know that I love you, right?” Jungkook nods, his hair tickling his jaw. “Good. I love you so much, my darling. I will hurry back as quickly as I can.”

Jungkook unlatches himself from around him, then he rests his hands on his sire’s cheeks. He kisses him, and Taehyung feels it in every part of his body. “I love you,” Jungkook says.

“I love you too,” Taehyung says softly. He kisses him once more and cuts himself off there, because if he doesn’t leave now then he never will. “I will see you soon, my love.”

“Okay…” Jungkook says. Taehyung squeezes his hand and walks to the door to his veranda. As soon as it closes behind him, he hears Jimin and Hoseok retrieve Jungkook so he will be occupied.

Taehyung sighs, his breath holding shape in the air in front of him. He would normally stop and look around him, at the way winter has painted their property in white, but he doesn’t want to linger anywhere longer than he needs to. He can admire it later with Jungkook, when it will be even prettier. He does wait a moment though to make sure he can feel the bond, that warmth in his chest that’s still burning, painted with Jungkook’s happiness around the edges. Holding that close to him, he makes his way quickly across the property and into the forest.

The entire trip to the hospital usually takes around an hour or so – the longest part being retrieving the actual blood, and doing so without being detected. He can get it done in a few seconds because of how quickly he is able to move, but he doesn’t want to take too much of one kind and not leave any for the humans who actually need it, or do so in a way where it could get those working at the hospital in trouble somehow, so he tries to do so carefully.

Since that part takes longer, he speeds through the city, not caring that many humans will see something moving very quickly, knowing they’ll explain it away in their heads. He just wants to get back to his fledgling – whose contentment he can still feel through the bond, along with occasional bursts of excitement when he must win whatever he and their friends are playing. It’s so nice to be able to feel Jungkook, even as he gets farther and farther away. It’s like Jungkook never really leaves him.

The city looks beautiful when dusted with snow. It is the time of the season where everything feels picturesque, not yet gloomy with dirty snow piling up on the curbsides. Snow gathers on top of old newspaper boxes and atop parked cars. The sidewalks twinkle when the setting sun reflects off of the salt sprinkled around to melt the ice for city dwellers. Everyone is bundled up in their winter clothes with noses tinted red, some rushing somewhere to warm up somewhere heated again while others take a stroll and look around them like Taehyung does.

He arrives at the hospital on the outskirts of the city. It is less pretty over here, beneath the overpass of the grey slush-lined highway, beside the big parking garage whose lights never work. It’s really quite a depressing place for any type of building, let alone a hospital – depressing in itself. But with it isolated from the city and surrounded by so much noise and movement, it is easier to focus less on the scent that permeates the space when there are fewer humans surrounding it. And with it surrounded by nothing and nowhere to go by foot, it is easy to escape into thin air.

The automatic doors part to let him in (his entrance allowed because the doors open themselves), and he is immediately hit by the overwhelming scent of blood.

But unlike before during these trips, the scent does not make him feel ravenous. It makes his stomach roil. He breathes through his mouth, then he remembers he doesn’t have to breathe, so he stops so he won’t smell anything. He is not given a break, because the scent insists on being smelled. He knows it is a result of having been feeding on his fledgling for quite some time now, but he didn’t know he’d have this much of a reaction to others. He doesn’t feel this way around humans in general, so it must be because there is so much open blood through the building – from patients in the emergency room or on surgeon tables.

He does his best to ignore it and counts it as a blessing, because he does not have to be conscious of the color of his eyes or the appearance of his fangs.

“Hello,” he says to the receptionist at the front counter. He watches her pupils dilate for a moment, in the way humans’ eyes always do when he allows them to look at him. He is aware he is good-looking. He was aware of that fact before he was turned, and it is why he had such a successful painting career; it allowed clients to sit there and stare at him for hours as he painted them. He is not entirely sure how he looks now that he has been turned since vampires cannot see themselves the way humans do, but it has worked in his favor in times like these. “I am here to visit Kim Eunwoo.”

He has a few different combinations of names to ask for whenever he visits hospitals, all of them common enough that someone with that name not being there is more of a strange coincidence than it would be if someone under that name were there. In the couple of times that has been the case, he always corrects with, “Oh, sorry, I meant Kim Jihoon. Sorry, it’s his brother. I’ve been out of sorts having to make this visit, so my head is a mess,” and that always fixes it.

He could just run through and ignore everybody’s yells for him, but there is a hospital on the other side of the city that he cannot go to anymore – at least not for a long time – because he tried doing that method. He has found that this is much more effective, although more tedious.

“Kim Eunwoo,” the woman says as she types it into the computer. He chose the name successfully because she asks, “Relationship to the patient?”

“Brother-in-law,” Taehyung says. He is amused by the smallest of pouts that comes to the woman’s face.

“Alright, he’s on the third floor, room 302. Elevators are right through these doors.”

Taehyung nods. “Thank you,” he says, then he disappears through the doors. Everything now is just a tried and true routine he has followed so many times that he barely notices himself carrying it out. He waits for the elevator to arrive, not oblivious to the looks people throw his way. Nor is he oblivious to the couple that stands awfully close to him in the elevator that certainly has enough space to spread out.

He gets off on the third floor and heads in the direction of room 302. His nose wrinkles because he has never liked the oncology unit, because most people are there recovering after a surgery. Before it was because the smell of their blood poking through their stitched-up wounds was so tempting to him, but now it is because it has the opposite effect.

He glances inside room 302, finding a man lying in his hospital bed, connected to an IV drip as he watches a game show from the television hanging from the ceiling. Taehyung walks past the room toward the area of vending machines at the end of the hall, his shoes quietly squeaking against the waxy linoleum. Most people above the first floor of the hospital are too preoccupied with their jobs or their loved ones to throw a look his way, rather rushing past him with clipboards or balloons. In the vending machine nook, he inserts some cash into the slot, then he types in a random number to buy something.

Once he’s grabbed whatever dropped from the vending machine spiral, he heads in the direction of the stairwell, figuring that if anybody were watching him on the security cameras they'd have gotten bored by now.

He makes his way back down to the first floor. He speeds down the first stairwell, his steps silent rather than echoing like a human’s would. He slows down on the second stairwell, because he staggers descending one of the steps. He pauses, leaning all of his weight against the railing as he squeezes his eyes shut. He slides down the wall for a second before he catches himself, finding his footing just before it’s too late. He tightens his grip on the railing, feeling the world continue to spin for a few moments more before it passes.

He blinks his eyes open, squinting against the fluorescent light. That was strange, he thinks. He chalks it up to being nauseated by the scent of humans’ blood and makes his way down the stairs the rest of the way. He reaches for the bond inside of him to comfort himself from the banal errand. It’s the slightest bit fainter because of the distance, but it’s still there, warm and bright. He holds onto it, letting it ground him as he walks through his previous fit of nausea.

He follows the maze of hallways that he knows well by now, making sure he nods at the doctors he passes to appear friendly and normal and not arouse suspicion.

When he turns the corner out of view from the busy part of the floor, he speeds up the rest of the way to remain undetected as he enters the bounds of the clinical pathology laboratory. He quickly punches in the code to the door, then the two others as it brings him to the fridges where blood bags are stored.

He opens the fridge, and it quickly slams shut when he sags against the wall beside it, feeling the room start to spin again. He squeezes his eyes shut and presses his palms into them, breathing through his mouth in case it’ll help.

It doesn’t. An entire minute passes and he still feels his vision swimming, so he ignores it and starts throwing blood bags into the bag he brought with him. He doesn’t do it in a way to remain undetected, he just blindly reaches for them, adding more and more until his own bag is full. He needs to get out of here – both so he won’t get caught, and because it must be the environment that is making him feel so faint. And like this, when everything in him is spent trying to remain upright and lucid, he cannot reach for the bond to steady to him.

He zips his bag up and closes the fridge door. He doesn’t worry about remaining inconspicuous now, because it’s more suspicious if a regular-looking man is staggering around the hospital rather than feeling a brief, strange gust of wind. He needs to get outside in the fresh air.

He quickly makes his way out, mostly undetected. The amount of light that’s able to make its way through the grey clouds is almost a little welcome, because the faint prickling against his skin distracts him from his nausea. He pauses a mile from the hospital with his hands on his knees, looking down at the ground as he breathes through his mouth. He focuses on the puff of air his breath emits.

He is not sure why he feels this way. There is no one and nothing around; he’s in a mostly-abandoned area outside of the city, and it just smells crisp and cold like the falling snow. But when he straightens back up, he stumbles again, his head feeling dizzy.

He reaches for the bond again, and it’s there. He can’t feel it really, but he knows that it is there, and he can feel that – that knowledge and warmth of knowing it is there, and it’s good enough to allow him to walk again.

He rushes through the city. His journey through takes much longer than normal because he keeps having to briefly make stops so he does not fall or even faint. It is something he has never had to do before. He catches humans staring at him when a man materializes in their midst – and one definitely not looking so great.

The physical feeling only gets worse, and soon an emotional one comes along with it. A sense of panic. He does not know for what, but he can feel it grow, can feel it wrap its fingers around his throat, making it even more difficult to continue going through the city.

He needs to get back home. He needs to be somewhere familiar, with the people he loves. He needs to lie down. He needs to get out of the view of all of these people looking at him, and he needs to get out of the light, and he needs to lie down.

He stumbles through the forest, falling over logs, hitting his shoulder into trees and making a flurry of snow fall onto him from their branches. He’s unable to catch his breath, and the feeling grows even worse when he remembers that he does not even need to breathe, and he cannot stop it. Everything is white, like a blinding avalanche has fallen, and he cannot see through it. He can’t make out any shapes, cannot hear any sounds but the crunch of snow as he stumbles through it. The panic inside of him grows, and he knows it is only his own, because he cannot even reach for the bond like this.

Eventually the trees that have guided him through the forest are no longer there for him to lean against, and he falls to the ground on the edge of the manor’s property. His ears have begun ringing now too, everything still white even as his eyes close. He hears strange noises coming from himself, but he cannot stop them, because he can’t do anything but fall further and allow this nausea and dizziness and panic to overtake him. On his knees with his hands buried in the snow in front of him, Taehyung’s chest heaves, his stomach rolling, the whole world spinning wildly even with his eyes closed. He cannot catch a breath, he cannot move, he cannot see.

“Sire?” he hears such an angelic, heavenly voice say. It’s wrapped in panic, but it sounds like music. “S-Sire? Tae? Tae?” He feels hands on him, rolling him onto his back. He feels snow sneak its way beneath his sweater, but he doesn’t care, because he feels warm hands on his cheeks. “Tae? Sire? What’s–”

“Kook-ah, the sun, you can’t–” a voice yells to him, but Jungkook ignores it.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” Jungkook says softly. The world shifts around Taehyung again when he’s lifted off the ground. He whimpers, flinching into the arms that are holding him, squeezing his eyes shut because everything cannot stop spinning. “I know, baby, I know,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung realizes that he is shivering. His teeth begin to chatter too, and he tries to move closer, but he can’t when he is being carried. He doesn’t feel the reprieve of being inside; it’s as if he is not in the manor at all, as if he’s been abandoned out in the snow. The panic in him still rises, he shivers more, the world spins. He’s set down on the bed, and his shoes and jacket are taken off for him. He does not open his eyes, because he fears he may vomit if he does, and he is not sure what that is like for someone who is not human.

“Tae, what’s going on, what happened?” Jungkook asks as he guides Taehyung to lay on the bed. Taehyung cannot speak, can only shake his head and shiver. When Jungkook pulls him into his arms, nothing changes. The panic or nausea in him do not settle. “Why are you shivering? What’s going on?” Jungkook is clearly trying to keep his voice even, but the panic in it matches the panic that Taehyung feels.

Taehyung whimpers as he’s moved around some more, then again when his shirt is taken off and he’s even colder than before.

But then he finally feels some reprieve from the cold when he’s laid back down, and it feels like he was placed down onto a fireplace hearth. He feels all-consuming warmth, so much physically that it starts to bleed into an emotional feeling too, and the panic and anxiety in him start to evaporate away.

A shaky sigh stutters from him, and he feels Jungkook exhale in relief. “I’ve got you, sire,” Jungkook says. Taehyung whimpers when Jungkook’s arms wrap around him and pull him into more of his warmth. “You’re okay, baby. Here, why don’t we–” Taehyung clutches on harder, because the panic in him rises at the possibility of Jungkook leaving.

He doesn’t get a choice, because very quickly, he finds that his pants have been taken off, leaving him only in his underwear. He realizes Jungkook is the same, because when he’s pulled onto his body, he feels the warmth everywhere. Taehyung moans loudly, hearing a snickering laugh as he tries to burrow closer, wanting to crawl inside of Jungkook so he’s surrounded by his warmth. “Bite me, baby,” Jungkook says. Taehyung listens before he even realizes he’s opened his mouth. He feels himself finally settle and mend back together when he starts to feed from Jungkook. Every mouthful makes him feel better, taking more and more until he feels normal again, all while Jungkook praises him.

“Mm, just like that, sire,” he says. “My good baby. Take as much as you need, baby, here, come closer too.” Taehyung lies fully on top of Jungkook as he feeds from him, taking more than what he needs to feel better, taking more just because he likes the way he tastes, likes that he’s drinking from Jungkook, from his fledgling, his love.

He only stops when he feels like he will make himself sick again from overeating. He licks the wounds on Jungkook’s neck closed, then he calmly rests his head down, sighing in relief. He feels warm again, he does not feel that anxiety, he does not feel dizzy. He just feels so here. Mostly-naked in bed, lying on top of his Jungkook.

He feels the bond again, the way it’s flooded with relief. The way it feels whole again, the way it hums and purrs just like his Jungkook does. Not right now, not after the worry from earlier, but the bond purring is enough.

“What happened, Tae?” Jungkook asks. His hand runs up and down Taehyung’s spine.

Taehyung clears his throat to make sure his voice is there. “I don’t know,” he says. “I started to feel dizzy at the hospital. I assumed it was from smelling all of the blood there, but it did not get better once I left. And–” He quickly jerks back, looking Jungkook over. His skin is red, resembling the humans out in the cold that he saw back in the city. “Jungkook, you’re a fledgling and you were out in the light. Your skin.” He takes his arm. “Are you–” He yelps when he is yanked back down so he’s lying on top of Jungkook again.

“Don’t worry about me,” he says. “I’m fine. Let me take care of you.”

“I’m the sire,” Taehyung says.

Jungkook wraps his arms and legs around him so it would be difficult for him to get away. “You are. But you’re my sire, so I’m going to take care of you. Now shush.”

“Fine,” Taehyung grumbles, because it all feels too good for him to fight it. “How are you feeling? Did you feel anything off?”

Jungkook sounds reluctant to say, “No…” as if that’s a bad thing. “I think because I was distracted with Jimin and Hoseok maybe? But I don’t–I dunno. I felt normal… I missed you, but nothing felt off.”

Taehyung tilts his head up. He waits for Jungkook to look down at him. “That’s a good thing,” he says. “I’m glad. Both because you didn’t feel bad, and because it means nothing is truly wrong. Was just something off on my end.”

“It’d been kind of a while since you fed, so do you think that has anything to do with it?”

Taehyung chuckles. “It had not been a while, but I can see why it might seem that way because my little fledgling feeds whenever he wants.” Jungkook whines, making Taehyung laugh. “But who knows, maybe it was that. I’m sure Namjoon will have some type of answer whenever we go talk to everyone else.”

“Don’t want to do that yet,” Jungkook holds on tighter, just in case that was the plan. Jungkook’s voice turns quieter, maybe even a little nervous. “Can you feed more, sire? I-I mean, not right now, unless you want to, but i-in general? I just–I know you’re old and don’t have to feed as often as I do or others do, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. You’re just able to last longer, but you shouldn’t be lasting. You should be feeding every day. I just–I want you to take better care of yourself.”

“Has this been on your mind?” Taehyung asks, because it sounds like it is something he has been sitting with.

“Y-Yeah, kind of.”

Taehyung tilts his head up. Jungkook looks down at him, and they lock eyes. “Okay, my darling,” Taehyung says. “I will.” He feels Jungkook’s happiness, his relief. He had no idea this was even on his mind, let alone enough to have bothered him so much. He’d do anything to put his fledgling at ease, no matter what it is. “You are sure you wouldn’t mind being bitten more often?”

Jungkook scoffs. “You could fangwarm me like I do with you and I would be very happy. No, I would not mind. You can feed from me a hundred times a day and I would ask for more.”

Taehyung chuckles breathily, feeling sleepy now after the interesting day. “Just once a day will be enough, my darling. Maybe twice if I’m feeling particularly indulgent that day.”

“I think you should indulge yourself as often as you want.”

Taehyung laughs. It is so lovely to feel warmth. He doesn’t even mind that he and Jungkook are nearly naked; all he can feel is every spot their skin touches. “Do you enjoy the act of being bitten?” he asks.

“Love when you bite me.”

Keeping his voice even, he continues, “I am not the only vampire who has fed from you before though.”

“Oh… Yeah…” Jungkook says as if he’d forgotten. “I–no, I don’t like the act itself. I, um, didn’t like it with the others. Just with you… I’m sorry.”

Taehyung rolls off of him and pulls Jungkook onto his side so they can face each other. His eyebrows furrow, even more deeply when Jungkook won’t look at him. Taehyung reaches out and tucks Jungkook’s hair behind his ear. He trails his fingers down and grabs a hold of his chin and forces him to look at him. “What are you sorry for?”

“Because other vampires fed from me.”

“Do not apologize for that, my love,” Taehyung says, heart aching from the genuine pain and fear in Jungkook’s tone. “I am sorry that you had to go through such lengths just to survive. I’m sure it was very difficult to do. I’m sure you were frightened. Do not apologize for anything you had to do to survive. It is okay.” He hesitates. He doesn’t want to ask because he doesn’t want to know the answer, but he has to now that the thought has appeared in his head. He remembers, too, how he often smelled Jungkook in alleys throughout the city when he searched for him. He assumes it was from being fed on there, but... “Did you… do… other things in exchange for money? Or any other benefits you would have received? If you did, please know that I do not think it is a bad thing. I may be old, but I’m old enough to have been around when things like that were even more common. It is not a bad thing, then or now, and I would not be upset at all. I just–I was just wondering.”

“You mean like…?”

“Probably, yes. Things of a sexual nature.”

“No, I didn’t…” Jungkook says. Taehyung hopes he cannot feel how profound his relief is. He was being entirely truthful; he does not think it is a bad thing to commit such acts, if it is still by choice. But he just–he really hates the thought of Jungkook allowing other vampires to prey on him, even if he does not think it’s bad that it is something that he did. As his sire and his lover though, he does not like it. So if he did that and other things, he would not like it. “I thought about it. I almost did, but I just–I dunno. Was scared, I guess.”

Taehyung makes Jungkook meet his eye again. “I am sorry you were put in a situation where it was a necessary choice for you to make. That will never be the case again, my darling.”

“Have you ever… I mean, not for pay, but, you know, with anyone…”

He has not thought of it before. It has never once been on his mind – whether through yearning or remembering. But something small is there, like a memory of a memory, so vague but taking up a minute amount of space. “I… I believe so,” he says hesitantly.

“You don’t have to soften it for me,” Jungkook wryly says.

“I am not,” Taehyung says. “I don’t remember much of my life, so I cannot recall being in a situation such as that, and I cannot imagine ever knowing anyone I would have liked to be like that with. But I just–I feel like I have, even if I cannot place any times it occurred.”

“Do you–I mean, d-do you ever want to–? With–with me?”

Taehyung chuckles. “Are you trying to seduce me, my little fledgling?”

“No!” Jungkook says. “If I seduce you, I’d do a much better job than this.”

Taehyung laughs. “I would like to see that one day, my love. Because yes, of course I would like to do things of that nature with you. I want to do everything with you, and that is definitely high up on that list.”

“O-Oh, okay, well, good then. I do too.”

Taehyung leans forward and kisses him softly. “Then we will when the time comes,” he says. “My darling boy, I have been wholeheartedly yours from the first moment I saw you. You may do whatever you wish with me, and I will feel lucky for it, because I feel honored to even be allowed in your presence.”

Taehyung finds himself on his back with a clingy fledgling cuddled up to him. “You’re so–you’re so dramatic,” Jungkook mutters shyly.

Taehyung chuckles. “It is true, sweetheart. Thank you for allowing me to be your sire.”

Jungkook tilts his head up to look at him. “Thank you for wanting to be.”

Chapter Text

“Tae, you promised,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung wants to say that he did not, in fact, promise, but he’s right. Even if he does not say those specific words, everything he says to Jungkook is a promise.

“I can feel that you’re hungry,” Jungkook says. “I think you stopped feeling it, but I can feel it.” He is probably correct, because Taehyung stopped feeling his hunger long ago. It only appears when it has been weeks since he’s fed; otherwise, everything feels like he’s just being too indulgent and greedy. But Jungkook wants him to be indulgent and greedy. “Why are you always so hesitant about feeding from me?”

Taehyung sighs. “Because you are my fledgling. I am your sire. I am supposed to feed you, but you are not supposed to feed me.”

“But I want you to,” Jungkook says. “We’re fledgling and sire, but we’re also boyfriend and boyfriend. Focus on that part of it if you need to.”

He’s right… It does sound more reasonable and normal (even though it’s really, really not normal for vampires to feed each other, even if madly in love) that way. Still, it feels better to think of them only as lovers, even if fledgling and sire will always be wonderfully ingrained in who they are.

Then he raises an eyebrow as a smirk comes to his face. “‘Boyfriend and boyfriend,’ huh?” he says.

In some ways, Jungkook is so easy to fluster. But in many cases, it just makes Jungkook cocky and confident. “Yeah, you’re my boyfriend,” he says easily.

“Don’t you think you should be polite and ask me?” Taehyung says.

Jungkook shakes his head. “Nope. You’re my boyfriend.”

Taehyung laughs. “So I do not get a choice in the matter?”

“Nope,” Jungkook says again. He pulls Taehyung into him as he laughs.

“Well, alright then,” Taehyung says. “I am your boyfriend.” It sounds so silly to say. Being as old as he is, in both ages, and calling someone his boyfriend. It sounds so juvenile. It makes him feel so wonderfully young and human, and he knows what Jungkook is runs much deeper than just a title.

Jungkook nods. “I’m your boyfriend too. So bite me. You heard what Namjoon told us.”

Taehyung sighs. He’s right. And it makes sense; it is something he should have thought of sooner. He feeds Jungkook much, much more than Taehyung feeds from him, so it is logical that he does not feed enough to replenish his blood loss by the time Jungkook takes more – leading to dangerous possibilities, such as what happened at the hospital.

If he doesn’t want to feed to sate his own hunger or pleasure, then he will do it to be able to serve Jungkook further.

“Do it from my wrist,” Jungkook says. “I want to watch.”

Taehyung has enough blood in him for it to make him vibrantly blush. He takes Jungkook’s arm, and he brings his wrist to his mouth. His eyes flit up to Jungkook, and Jungkook encouragingly nods. Taehyung tenderly kisses his wrist. “Thank you for feeding me, my darling,” he says. He kisses his wrist once more, then he sinks his teeth into him. He pushes out only enough venom to dull the ache of his teeth sliding in, because even if Jungkook says he doesn’t mind it – and sometimes likes it – he does not want to cause him any pain, especially when his fledgling is being so kind as to feed him.

Taehyung’s eyes squeeze shut as they always do when he swallows his first mouthful of blood, a whimper sounding from his throat. Another when he feels Jungkook’s hand find his hair and gently pet through. Jungkook tastes so good, and this is his fledgling, his love, and he tastes so wonderful, and he is allowing him to feed from him. It makes his head foggy, the taste of his blood, the knowledge of whose blood it is. He swallows more, feeling it glide so easily down his throat. He feels the bond purr, a source of warmth in his chest as he grows more full. He glances up at Jungkook, and he whimpers again because of how softly Jungkook is watching him, how pleased he looks, how pleased he feels, a look and a feeling Taehyung recognizes because he feels it when his fledgling feeds from him too.

He does not indulge himself too much yet. He feeds just enough to be reasonable, far more than he ever has. He slides his fangs out of his wrist and he licks the wounds closed. He watches the skin mend back together, then he gently slides his thumb over the spot, hoping it does not hurt. He kisses him there once more, softly as he says again, “Thank you, my love.”

With a hand on the back of his neck, Jungkook pulls him to him for a kiss. Taehyung can still taste his own blood on his lips from earlier, and with Jungkook’s in his mouth, they taste what it’s like if they were merged into one.

“I think I would like to draw today,” Taehyung says.

Jungkook looks and sounds very excited when he asks, “Really?”

Taehyung nods. He has been thinking about painting so often since Jungkook brought it up on one of their nightly walks. His hands have been wanting to reach for a paintbrush he isn’t even sure he has anymore. But something in him–he can’t do it. Something is stopping him, and thinking about it for longer than a few seconds threatens to send him into a strange panic.

Drawing is close though, and it does not bring about those same confusing feelings. “I believe I have some paper and charcoals in the librar–” Jungkook is no longer in front of him. The door to their bedroom is open, then Jungkook is on the bed with him again, the door closed and his art supplies in his hand. He finds it very amusing how often Jungkook uses his speed when he and all of the others mostly do not unless they are being sneaky or are outside.

“Here,” Jungkook says, handing them to him.

“You seem to want me to draw,” Taehyung chuckles.

“You used to be a painter. Back when people hired painters; that was your job. You don’t do it anymore, and I know you want to, so this is close. I want you to do it. What are you going to draw?”

“Well, my little muse, of course. You are the center of my life, so of course any art I make will be of you in some way.”

“O-Oh,” Jungkook shyly stutters, as if that is not obvious. “How do you want me?”

“I want you comfortable and relaxed,” Taehyung says. “Why don’t you go grab one of the portable video game devices we have, and you can just lay in bed and play.”

“Portable video game devices,” Jungkook says quietly with a laugh as he leaves the room. Taehyung knows he will forever be a source of entertainment for him in this way.

Jungkook is back just a moment later with the device Taehyung had in mind, although he cannot recall the name of it. Jungkook crawls into their bed and sprawls out as Taehyung retrieves a chair from the sitting area to move to the end of the bed. “Do you want me to take my clothes off?”

Taehyung laughs. “You may do so if you wish, my darling, but you do not have to be naked to be my model. Do you offer this to all of the others who surely see you as a muse?”

Jungkook snorts. “Yeah, every single one of the hundreds of them.”

“Well, I am glad you are able to take a break from them to be mine today.”

“You’ll always be my first choice.”

Taehyung laughs. “Thank you, my love.”

Jungkook wiggles around and gets comfortable, and he finally settles on lying on his back, turned just slightly on his side so he’s facing Taehyung. He has one leg crossed over the other, and he holds his video game device above him, pressing a few buttons before music starts to play from it.

Taehyung cannot remember much of his life from before, but he remembers some of it from when he used to paint professionally, before he was bitten and turned. And this is much different from back then. The clothes, the video game device, even the relaxed way Jungkook is laying.

It feels even more lovely because of it. The lack of formality, the way it is so casual.

But… but something about it… He doesn’t know. When Jungkook looks away from his device and locks eyes with him. The little smile he gives before he goes back to playing his game… Something about it is strangely familiar. He knows he has never been in this situation, of course, since he does not even know what Jungkook is holding. He knows he hasn’t been in it with anybody, because he can remember a lot of his recent life, and there has been nobody – nor has he ever wanted anybody at any stage of his life, so he thinks even the times he cannot remember were spent alone, because even in his human years, he never yearned for another person.

Still, though. Somehow, in some strange way, when Jungkook locks eyes with him again and asks, “Can you come kiss me before you start?” something about it is familiar.

It is when Taehyung crawls across the bed as well. When he leans down and kisses him. When he whispers, “I love you, my darling,” and when he hears, “I love you,” back.

He returns back to his chair at the side of the bed, then he gets started. As soon as he glides the charcoal stick across the paper of his empty leather-bound sketchbook, the warmth and familiarity he feels is overwhelming. Not the strange familiarity and recognition from before, but as if part of himself is coming home in some way as he allows himself to be an artist again. It feels like he is meeting a version of himself again as he sketches his love onto his paper.

There is nothing he has to relearn either. He’s able to capture the curves of Jungkook’s lounging body, able to transfer the little details, able to know where to shade in the shadows of the beautiful view in front of him. It all comes back to him as if he’d been drawing every day of his life, and he knows the familiarity of one day maybe painting again would bring back this feeling even stronger.

He is not ready for that yet though. He doesn’t know why, but maybe he will when he realizes he is ready, if the time ever comes.

“What if you’re actually really bad at art?” Jungkook says.

Taehyung raises an eyebrow as he glances at his face before looking at his shoulder to capture the slope of it. “Will you elaborate?”

Jungkook sets his device down and looks at him. “Like we’ve talked about art, and you used to be a painter as your job a thousand years ago,” Taehyung snorts, “but what if I look at what you’re drawing and you’re actually really bad? That’d be so awkward.”

Taehyung laughs. “Well, I hope that is not the case then,” he says.

“Do you have a favorite season?” Jungkook asks. The way his collarbone juts out, peeking over the top of his shirt.

“I enjoy summer very much,” Taehyung says. “A downside is that it takes longer for night to fall, so there is less time to spend outside. But still, I enjoy it. Do you have a favorite, my darling?”

“You call me a lot of pet names.”

Taehyung hums. The way Jungkook’s shirt has ridden up, showing his belly button. “I do, but I am just calling you all of the things that you are. Do you dislike it? Would you like me to stop?”

“No, don’t stop, I like it,” he says, his tone even a little desperate. “And I like summer too. Who takes care of the garden here?”

“I do,” Taehyung says. Jungkook’s ankle, the way it hooks over his other. “With some help from Yoongi as well.”

“You do?” Jungkook says, looking away from his game. Taehyung nods. Jungkook’s hair, the gentle waves that fall against the pillow. “That’s nice… Can I sit with you when it’s time for you to garden again?”

Taehyung looks at his eyes and softens. “I would like that very much, my love.” Taehyung gets up, and he leans over the bed to kiss Jungkook. He sees Jungkook’s sparkling eyes when he returns back to his chair to continue his drawing. The beauty mark beneath his lip that has captivated him from the very first day. A simple dot with charcoal, placed delicately on his skin.

Jungkook gets up quite soon – out of position, but Taehyung was only adding the details of the bed itself anyway – and takes his sketchbook from him to set aside without asking. He seats himself in his lap. Taehyung’s arms wrap around his waist, and he kisses him. He kisses him again, kisses his lips once more, and even more when he cannot stop, just short, sweet kisses.

“They say beauty marks appear where you have been kissed the most in your past life,” Taehyung says, kissing him once more. “Who has been able to kiss you as I do, hm?" He kisses him again, right where the beauty mark is beneath his lip.

“What about yours, huh?” Jungkook says, kissing the one on his lip, the tip of his nose, beneath his eye.

“I developed those later in life, so I am safe,” Taehyung says.

Jungkook huffs. “No one’s kissed me but you,” he says. “In any lives.”

Taehyung grumbles. “I hope that is correct, because I’m old enough to be able to find who all of those other admirers of yours were.”

Jungkook cozies right up to him, tucks himself under his chin. “You’ve been my only admirer,” he says. He tilts his head up and bites Taehyung, drinking his blood as if he doesn’t even need to ask.

Taehyung laughs to himself. His hand goes to the back of Jungkook’s head and supports him there as he tilts his own head to the side. “The only one who’s been allowed to do anything about their admiration,” he says, trying not to shiver when Jungkook’s licks his neck to close the wounds. “I am certain you’ve had many, many admirers. You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, my love. You–”

Suddenly the weight on Taehyung’s lap is gone. He sighs, knowing Jungkook sped off somewhere again – probably out of shyness. He reaches for his sketchbook, then he freezes. There is a slight weight on his lap.

He looks down.

His brain is not working.

Something is wrong.

Something is not right.

Something is wrong, because there is a little fruit bat looking up at him.

Taehyung blinks at it. The bat blinks back.

He stays silent and still. He just stares down at the bat while the bat blinks up at him. The bat does not move, and neither does Taehyung. They just look at each other in still silence.

It takes almost an entire minute before something starts to make sense, because he recognizes those eyes. That makes it make even less sense, because that cannot be Jungkook. They are just dark bat eyes, but something about them is familiar. Maybe it is the way they are looking up at him.

Feeling extremely stupid for even entertaining the thought, let alone speaking it, Taehyung says, “J-Jungkook?” His mouth drops open when the bat nods with his little bat head. “You’re Jungkook?” The bat nods again. Taehyung just stares. He has no idea what to think or do. “Jungkook?” he asks again. Jungkook nods again.

He watches Jungkook look down at himself, then over at his wings that are partially draped down each side of Taehyung’s leg as he lies flat on his stomach, because bats are unable to stand. Jungkook – possibly Jungkook, if they were living in a world that did not make sense, or if Taehyung lost his mind somewhere along the way to today – spreads his left wing out to its full extent, which is quite wide. He shakes it out, then he pulls it close to himself again. He does the same to the right one, shaking it out before bringing it into his body again, as if checking himself out. He spreads both wings out. He clumsily flaps them, one wing not moving in tandem with the other, but he stays put.

“Did you know you’re a bat right now?” Taehyung asks. Jungkook looks up at him again and nods. “Have you done this before?” Jungkook shakes his head.

Jungkook looks a little freaked out, but just as he did with finding out he was suddenly turned into a vampire, he takes it in stride somehow. He looks more curious than alarmed, as if this is just an exciting new turn of events and not something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

“I’m–um–can I hold you?” Taehyung asks, because they really need to talk to somebody about this. Jungkook clumsily crawls to Taehyung’s hand, pulling himself forward with the claws on his wings with his tummy dragging along his leg. He pulls himself onto Taehyung’s hand then retracts his wings when he is in place. He is so tiny, just about the size of Taehyung’s hand. The brownish-black fur on his body is so soft and fluffy, and his little teddy bear-like ears twitch around.

“Okay, I’m going to bring us to Namjoon,” Taehyung says. He stands, and he feels Jungkook purring against his palm. Could the two have something to do with each other? He’s heard of vampires purring, but never, ever of them turning into bats outside of the silly lore humans have created. But he knows now that he is not hallucinating; there is a bat in his hand.

He opens their bedroom door and rushes through their wing of the manor. He can hear Namjoon in his professional office, in a separate area in the house. He can hear that there are others there, and he’d like to tell them to get the fuck out, but it would be better for Namjoon to come to their private wing.

He peeks around the corner into Namjoon’s office, where the newborns and Baekhyun are. He doesn’t even have it in himself to get annoyed because he is too concerned about this. “Namjoon,” he says. Namjoon stops mid-sentence and over at him. “I need you to come to my bedroom.”

“Can it wait? We are in the middle of something. I can be there in ten minutes or so.”

“You need to come now,” he says. His voice is firm and cold, conveying a serious finality that would scare him if he wasn’t himself. And even so, Jungkook is still purring in his hand and even nuzzling his furry cheek against his fingers.

“I–yes, alright,” Namjoon says.

Taehyung nods and quickly speeds back to their bedroom. He sits down on their bed, and he looks down at Jungkook just lounging on his hand. Jungkook looks up at him, just staring. Big, dark eyes looking at him, reflecting the room’s light just like they do when he is a vampire. “What is happening,” Taehyung whispers. He looks up when Namjoon walks into the room. He watches Namjoon’s footsteps falter when he spots the bat on his hand. Namjoon stares down at the bat, and Taehyung watches him. Namjoon looks at him, not saying anything. “This is Jungkook.”

He watches Namjoon’s eyes go comically wide. “The… the bat?”

“Yes,” Taehyung says.

“How do you know that?”

“Well, for starters, I would not allow a bat to just rest in my hand. Secondly, Jungkook was sitting in my lap when he disappeared and a bat was in his place. Thirdly, I asked him and he nodded.”

Namjoon slowly approaches them, then he hesitantly sits on the bed beside them. Jungkook looks over at him, still casually lying on his hand as if this is normal and there is nowhere he would rather be. “Jungkook?” Namjoon asks. The bat – Jungkook – nods. Namjoon's eyes go wider.

“Is this–does this happen?”

Namjoon slowly shakes his head. “I’ve read every single piece of literature on vampires that I’ve been able to unearth for a long, long time, and not in a single place have I ever read, or even heard of, vampires turning into bats outside of what humans have written. I have never known of it truly happening.”

“Then why is my fledgling a bat.”

Namjoon just keeps slowly shaking his head, not taking his eyes away from Jungkook, whose eyes have closed because he appears to have fallen asleep. “I have no idea.”

Then Taehyung thinks, What if Jungkook is stuck like this? Before he knows what he’s doing, he’s gently petting the bat’s little head to wake him up. Jungkook doesn’t even lift his head, just opens his eyes. “Jungkook, darling, c-can you, um, shift back, I guess? You know, u-um, turn back into a vampire?” He panics further, not knowing what will become of them if Jungkook stays this way forever.

The bat very clumsily jumps off of Taehyung's hand. He tumbles across his lap before splaying out flat on his back on the mattress, blinking up at the ceiling after his fall. Then his eyes close, and Taehyung waits. Namjoon is completely still and silent just like Taehyung while they watch him. Ten seconds pass, and nothing happens. Then twenty, and Taehyung starts to feel sick.

Then by the thirty second mark, his beautiful, sweet, vampire fledgling is beside him again, blinking and squinting as he appears to try to get his bearings again. Jungkook finally looks at him and doesn’t say anything.

“Jungkook,” Taehyung says. “What the fuck.”

Jungkook giggles as if this isn’t an absolutely insane situation. “I’ve never heard you swear before,” he says.

“Jungkook,” Taehyung says again. “You were a bat.”

Jungkook nods.

Nobody says anything.

Taehyung feels like he is going insane.

“Jungkook,” he says again. “You were a bat.” Jungkook just nods again. What in the world is going on. “Did you know that you have the ability to turn into a bat?”

“No,” Jungkook says.

“So you have never turned into one before?”

“No.”

“Did you know that vampires are able to do that?”

Jungkook tilts his head to the side. “Are they?”

“No!” Taehyung yells. “Why are you acting so calm about this?!”

He watches Jungkook curl into himself, and he feels something uncomfortable in his chest. “I don’t know why you’re being mean to me about it…” he says quietly.

“Oh, my darling, no, no,” Taehyung immediately softens his voice. He takes Jungkook’s hands and kisses each one, then he rests Jungkook’s hands on his cheeks and presses his own over them. “I am sorry, sweetheart. I did not mean to come off as mean. I’m sorry, Jungkook. It’s just–I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to turn back, and you are always so calm about things.”

“Yeah, maybe you should try it sometime,” Jungkook mumbles.

Taehyung snorts while Namjoon says, “I agree with Jungkook.”

Taehyung wryly chuckles. “Perhaps you are correct, but I do think that this is something appropriate to act uncalmly toward. But I am sorry if I made you feel like that was directed at you, my sweet little fledgling. I am just–you turned into a bat, Jungkook. You, my Jungkook sitting right here, were suddenly a little bat.” Jungkook nods. “How did you do that?”

Jungkook chews on his lip and shrugs. “I dunno. I think that you were making me really shy and then I was just a bat.”

Taehyung really does not think that it is tied to him making his blushing boy shy, but maybe it was that Jungkook wanted to hide, and so that is how he achieved it? That really does not explain why he actually is able to do that, but maybe how it happened. Not to even mention the hundreds of logistics behind it – the fact that Jungkook is still wearing clothes after shifting back into himself, for one.

“Do you think you are able to change back into being a bat?” Namjoon asks. “You were able to shift out of it, but can you go back into it?”

Jungkook’s eyebrows furrow while a pout comes to his lips as he focuses. Taehyung can feel his body tense up, as if trying to force itself into changing.

But nothing happens, and he is just straining himself. “You were very relaxed when you changed, remember?” Taehyung says. “I don’t think winding yourself up will do it when you were calm and relaxed before.” Taehyung could talk to him as he was doing earlier, but he doesn’t want Jungkook to think he’s talking sweetly to him just to try to cause this to happen.

“Think of what you did when shifting back into how you are now,” Namjoon says.

Taehyung brushes his thumb back and forth along his knuckles. “You can do it,” he says softly, encouragingly. “But if you don’t want to, that’s okay, my love. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. If you want to stay this way, I’ll send Namjoon away and hold you and cover you in kiss–” Suddenly the hand in his is no longer there, because a little bat is on the bed beside him.

There’s not even an indication that Jungkook is shifting into this bat form of his. No sounds of the cracking of his bones changing shape, no burst of air or light. There is just suddenly no longer a human (well, vampire, really, but semantics) there with a bat in his place.

Now that he was expecting it and is only microscopically less alarmed, he’s able to see how cute Jungkook is. He’s not very small, but definitely not very big either – just about the size of Taehyung’s hand like he observed earlier. The fur on his body is black with some accents of dark brown, and his eyes are so, so sweet. They look almost too big for his face, and they’re so dark and round just like his vampire Jungkook. He looks like a fruit bat, but a baby one. He definitely doesn’t look like a vampire bat; he’s much softer and cuter, cuddly, even.

“Hi, my little fledgling,” Taehyung coos. A giggle bubbles up out of him. He’s hit with an extreme wave of fondness. He’s still confused and scared, but so, so endeared too. Even more so when Jungkook very clumsily drags himself across the bed and up onto Taehyung’s lap. Taehyung reaches his finger out to pet Jungkook, but Jungkook hooks onto his finger with his back feet. When Taehyung lifts his hand, Jungkook hangs from it upside down just like bats do.

Taehyung doesn’t even have the words. It’s so cute, and it’s so confusing, and he has no idea how they are here right now. He looks at Namjoon for guidance, but he looks equally as baffled as Taehyung feels. “I am going to do some research,” Namjoon says after several seconds of just staring at Jungkook, with Jungkook staring back from his upside down perch. He stands and hurries out. Taehyung is glad they have him here, because when Namjoon is stumped on something, he will not rest until he can figure it out – and it is not even a burden on him, because Namjoon enjoys doing research.

For now, he will just enjoy this cute little bat he has found himself with – at least until Jimin gets word of it and shows up.

“You make for a very cute bat, my darling,” Taehyung says as Jungkook blinks at him, his wings wrapped around himself, looking very at ease as he hangs upside down. “Do you think you can fly?” Somehow, as if he knows his boy so well, he can see when the bat version of his boy’s eyes light up. Jungkook lets himself fall from Taehyung’s finger, but Taehyung quickly catches him in his two cupped hands before he can collide with his lap. When Jungkook looks at him, Taehyung can tell he looks cheekily satisfied, like he was expecting Taehyung to do that. Taehyung has no idea how he can read his Jungkook when he is a bat, but maybe it is because of how dearly he loves him and how closely he has watched him that things of that nature can transcend something as strange as this.

Taehyung moves to the head of the bed. He holds his hand out, so it’s as if it were a diving board. “Alright, now do what feels natural, but please don’t hurt yourself.”

Jungkook clumsily crawls to the edge of his hand and peeks over his fingers, down the rather small amount of space between his hand and the bed. He can feel Jungkook’s little heartbeat against his palm. It is a few more seconds of psyching himself up, then Jungkook leaps off of his hand, his wings outstretched.

Then he watches him promptly fall down onto the bed with a plop. Taehyung falls into a fit of laughter, and it’s met with a few strange squeaking sounds – which must be bats’ ways of chirping like birds. And Jungkook’s new way to convey his whining.

“I’m sorry, darling,” Taehyung laughs, trying to sober himself. “I just–I assumed it would happen naturally. Here, let’s try again.”

Never would Taehyung have ever thought this would be his life. Every single normal aspect of it – having a fledgling, having a boyfriend, loving and being loved in return – would have been inconceivable to him. Let alone this – trying to help his bat fledgling learn how to fly.

He helps a still-chirping Jungkook onto his hand – as if Jungkook is having a whole whining conversation with him defending his honor. What a silly situation.

“Alright, sweetheart, when you jump this time, you should probably try to flap your wings a little too.” More squeaking even though he wasn’t even teasing him; it was an honest suggestion because it seems like Jungkook forgot. Jungkook crawls to the end of his hand again, and he doesn’t waste a second to jump.

And this time, he flaps his wings, and he hovers there for a second. He even rises up an inch or so before his wings lose their balance and momentum and he clumsily flutters down to the bed.

“That was so good!” Taehyung says. He can somehow tell that Jungkook’s chirping and squeaking is happy and excited this time, not whiny and pouty. Taehyung picks him up and says, “Okay, I’m going to gently toss you this time. I won’t throw you high or far, just give you some motivation to try, okay?” Jungkook nods, somehow looking determined even though he is very much a bat and has the face of a bat.

Before Taehyung does it, he brings Jungkook closer and kisses the top of his head. Then he gently tosses him into the air, and Jungkook’s leathery wings spread. He falls for a moment, but then he catches himself and he starts to float, then to fly. Not high or far, just staying within the bounds of the bed in case he falls. He even turns around and flies toward Taehyung. Taehyung holds his hand out, and Jungkook neatly lands onto it.

“Darling, that was so good!” Taehyung says. Jungkook excitedly crawls closer, digging the claws at the tips of his wings into his palm, but the slight sting of pain is forgotten when he starts sweetly nuzzling his soft bat face against his own. “Can you shift back into your other version of Jungkook so we can talk?”

He sets Jungkook onto the bed to give him room, and it doesn’t even take any concentration; Jungkook just shifts and is there as a vampire in front of him again. “Did you see that?! I flew!”

“I saw!” Taehyung laughs. “I am very proud of you. Was it difficult?”

“Kind of. It’s a little hard to figure out how I need to move my wings the right way to do certain things, but I almost have it figured out already I think!”

“How are you feeling about all of this?”

“It’s a little confusing that I’m like this now, but I like it! It’s so fun and weird!”

Taehyung laughs again. “It is indeed.” His silly boy with his childlike wonder, always so happy to accept different things thrown his way. “Well, I am happy that you seem to be excited about it.”

“How do you feel about it?”

“If you are happy with it, then so am I.”

“You don’t think it’s weird?”

“Oh, it’s definitely weird,” Taehyung laughs. “But I am not put off by it, if that is what you mean. I think you are very, very cute as a bat, and as long as you are having fun with it, then I am happy. Does it hurt to shift between forms?” Jungkook shakes his head. He is glad for that, because he knows his fledgling is going to have a lot of fun with this, and he doesn’t want it to cause him any pain.

“Why am I able to do this?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Taehyung says. “It is not something that vampires are able to do. I have been alive for a long time and have learned a lot and known many vampires, so I can say that almost with certainty.” Then he remembers something. “There is another vampire I know that I believe has been around nearly as long as I have, so I suppose I could ask him. I was planning on reaching out soon anyway, because I know that his mate does tattoos and would be more than happy to assist you along that journey.”

“Oh! Who? Also, ‘mate’?”

Taehyung nods. “It is what we generally call one another when we have devoted ourselves to another, because it is lasting, since we do not die.”

“Oh,” Jungkook says, nodding. “Then are you my mate?”

Taehyung presses his lips together. He knows Jungkook isn’t as familiar with vampires as he and everyone else is, of course, since he hasn’t been one for very long. He wasn’t able to tell how serious it is to exchange blood between vampires, nor how serious it is to call another their mate. It is more than a boyfriend or a partner. They live for eternity, and it is a knowledge that their mate will be beside them, truly, forever.

But even if he doesn’t understand the full extent of it, they have already decided that they will be together for always. So, “Y-Yes, I suppose I am. And you are mine, little fledgling.” Jungkook nods, looking pleased. “Now I am going to retrieve one of the portable computers we have so I can reach out to them. Do you know where they are kept?”

Jungkook snorts. “They’re called laptops, and they’re in the main library. I’ll come with you. Can I go as a bat?”

“You can be a bat or a vampire whenever you’d like, no need to ask me. We might run into others though, so is it okay with you if they know?”

Jungkook giggles menacingly. “Yeah, I wanna see how Jimin and Hoseok react.”

“Do you like to hang upside down? Does it feel more comfortable than holding you in my hand?”

Jungkook shrugs. “I liked both, I think.”

Jungkook is just so cute as a bat; it looks so natural with those big, dark eyes. Taehyung scoops him up, then he holds his finger out. Jungkook’s back feet hook around it, then Taehyung lifts him up as he hangs there, his wings wrapped around himself. It’s so cute and silly and strange, but those are some of the words he’d use to describe all of his time with Jungkook, so this really just fits right in.

With Jungkook hanging from his finger, he walks out of their bedroom, toward the manor’s communal library. They’ve almost made it there without running into anybody, but then Jimin walks out of one of the rooms and intercepts them. “Oh, h–” he says excitedly, then he stops. His eyes zero in on the bat hanging from his finger. Taehyung looks at Jungkook, who is just looking at Jimin from upside down. He and Jimin stare at each other.

“What is that,” Jimin eventually says.

“Jungkook.”

Jimin looks at him. “What?”

“It’s Jungkook.”

“No, it’s a bat.”

“Yes, and the bat is Jungkook.”

“You got a pet bat and named him after Jungkook?”

“No, this is Jungkook.”

“It’s a bat.”

“Yes.”

“Named Jungkook.”

“Well, the vampire is named Jungkook, so therefore the bat is also named Jungkook, because it is Jungkook.” Jimin is visibly not comprehending, which is understandable. “Come to the library.” He walks past him, and Jimin takes several seconds to follow.

The manor’s communal library is different from his own. He allowed his friends to take creative decorations when decorating the space since he has a personal library that is just to his tastes, so this one is much less dark and moody. Rather than dark wood and candlelit lights, the built-in shelves are a sage green, the walls an eggshell white, the reading chairs a dark red to add some more color. It really is not very cohesive to the rest of the manor’s design, but it is their shared space, so he does not mind it. It is a room often used by the others for various reasons, and they are happy to spend time in here, so Taehyung is happy it is a space they have.

There is a table-like desk against one of the walls, light wood in a simple Scandinavian-style design, with one of their portable computers on top. Taehyung sits down on the desk chair, then he sets Jungkook on his lap. Just a second later, the bat is replaced by the vampire, and a scream from Jimin fills the air. Jungkook kisses Taehyung, then he settles in. Taehyung looks at Jimin, whose hand is on his heart with his mouth dropped open. “The bat is Jungkook,” Taehyung says. “He turned into a bat earlier.”

“Wh–how–why?”

“I do not know why, nor how,” Taehyung says. “He just did, and now he has been.” Jungkook nods. “Namjoon is seeing if he can figure anything out. But.” He shrugs.

“How are you so calm about this?!” Jimin says just like Taehyung did earlier.

Taehyung shrugs again. “Jungkook finds it fun, and I find him cute. Stranger things have happened.” He is loved, after all.

“I have to go tell Yoongi and Hoseok,” Jimin says like he often does when things happen, then he disappears.

Taehyung turns to Jungkook and kisses him. “Sweet boy,” he says. He kisses his beauty mark too. He looks down at the portable computer, inspecting it. He does not see a latch on it. “How does this open, darling?” he asks.

“I don’t know how I’m going to be able to watch you use a laptop. I love you so much.”

Taehyung watches him open it. “I am happy you find me amusing. I love you too.” Jungkook leans back to give him room to reach everything. Taehyung looks down at the bottom half of the portable computer, the part that stays on the desk. He knows that he is to place his finger on the rectangle here, which causes the arrow on the screen to move.

Before he does so, he inspects the screen and all of the little pictures on it. There is one that he recognizes – the only one that he recognizes – because he has used the computer to send electronic mail messages before. He places his fingers on the rectangle, then he drags it across until the arrow on the screen reaches the correct picture. He presses down to select it, but nothing happens. He does it again, and still nothing happens. His eyebrows furrow. “Hm.”

“Try clicking it twice,” Jungkook says, clearly trying as hard as he can to keep the amusement out of his tone.

Taehyung listens and says, “Aha!” when the screen changes successfully. He looks down at the keyboard, studying each of the letters there to get acquainted with it. Slowly but surely, he types “i would like to send an email please” into the search bar at the top (a term he learned from Jimin when he was taught the basics of the portable computer) and hits enter. The screen changes once more, then Taehyung asks, “And I just type in my message and press enter again, correct? And it will send?”

Jungkook looks like he is going to bite through his bottom lip with how hard he is trying to hold back his laughter. It is set free when Taehyung pokes him in the ribs. “This is just the search page, sire,” Jungkook laughs. “You’ll have to go to the website and log into your account. Do you know what kind of email account you have?”

Taehyung scratches his head, trying to recall. “I believe it is the one that has the strange symbol in it. Like the letter ‘a’ with a circle around it.” In the air, he draws the @ symbol he sees in his head. Jungkook rests his forearms on the desk and hides his face in the space they create, dying of laughter.

“All email addresses have that symbol in it,” Jungkook says, wiping a stray tear from his cheek. “I’ll just go to the different websites and you can tell me if they look familiar.”

Jungkook clicks on some words on the screen, and Taehyung immediately recognizes it. “Yes! It is this one.” Jungkook clicks around some more, and it opens up into an empty box. “Oh, have we broken it?”

Jungkook giggles. “No. This is where you type in your email. It’s blank right now. I’ll type it for you. What’s their email address?”

Taehyung taps his chin. “I am not sure. But I know that he lives in the south side of Seoul. I could ask Namjoon for his exact address.”

“Sire, you’re so fucking cute, I literally can’t– No, we don’t need his actual address. What’s his name?”

“His name is Lee Felix.”

He watches Jungkook type the words onto the screen very quickly, then he clicks on something. “His email address was already saved. So tell me what you want to say and I’ll type it. It’ll be faster.”

“Alright. So I would like to say: Dear Felix,” he watches Jungkook type the words, “Hello. How are you doing? It has been a while since we have last spoken. I hope you and Chan are well. There have been some interesting developments in my life on which your insight would be much appreciated. In addition to that, I know of someone who is interested in the art of tattooing, and I thought that Chan would be of assistance to him, if he would be so kindly inclined. If you would like to meet, you both are still always welcome at the manor, and I would like to plan a date for us. I look forward to your reply. Take care. Sincerely, Kim Taehyung.”

“Does this look good?” Jungkook asks.

“Mhm, perfect, my little fledgling.” He watches Jungkook click around, then with a whoosh sound effect, the email is presumably sent off.

“We should get you a cellphone,” Jungkook says. “Not only because friends don’t communicate through email, but because of situations like yesterday when you went to the hospital. You could have called me.”

“I suppose you are correct,” Taehyung sighs. He supposes he does need to catch up to the world around him sometimes. “I’d like to be able to contact you if we are ever apart. You will need a cellphone too, of course. Why don’t you order some for us then? That is something that can be done, correct?”

“O-Oh, well, yeah.”

“Then order whichever one you would like.”

“They’re kind of expensive though…”

“Darling, I have accumulated almost two hundred years’ worth of money. It will never be an issue. Please order what you wish. It is your money too now, of course.”

Jungkook doesn’t say anything, just turns away back to the computer screen. Taehyung rests his cheek against his shoulder, watching him do many things that he does not understand. Taehyung turns his head and kisses his shoulder, then he rests his head against it again. He hears Jungkook start to purr. It makes the bond purr too, glow with warmth. He wonders again if Jungkook’s purring has anything to do with his new abilities. He knows that vampires have purred before though, and none of those have turned into bats, so he thinks it really just means that Jungkook is a fledgling who is being cared for.

“What color do you want?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung watches him click little circles of different colors, and the photo of the cellular phone on the screen miraculously changes colors with it. “Hmm… I would like the red one, I believe. The dark red color.”

“Thought so,” Jungkook says. He clicks “Add to Cart,” then he does the same with a black cellular phone. “Do you know your credit card information?”

“I believe it should be stored in the portable computer.”

Jungkook nods, and he seamlessly goes through the check out process before an order confirmation is on the screen. “Okay, they should be there in a week,” Jungkook says. “We’ll have to add them to your phone plan, but that can be done online too.”

Taehyung does not know what that means, but he trusts him. “Shall we–”

The door to the library is thrown open. Jimin marches in, followed by an equally-as-passionate Hoseok, and a calm Yoongi. “Show them,” Jimin says.

Taehyung and Jungkook quickly glance at each other, somehow seeing that they are sharing the same thought. Taehyung looks at them and tilts his head to the side. “Show them what?” he asks.

“Show them how Jungkook can turn into a bat, obviously?!” Jimin says.

Taehyung looks at Jungkook, whose eyebrows deeply furrow. His expression looks so genuine, nothing like an act. “Me?... Turn into a bat?”

“Told you,” Hoseok says to Yoongi with a scoff while Yoongi chuckles.

“I’m not lying!” Jimin says. “You guys! Stop pretending!”

“Jimin, what are you talking about?” Taehyung asks.

“What?! Jungkook was a bat!”

“What is he talking about?” Jungkook whispers to Taehyung, knowing the others can hear.

“No idea…” Taehyung whispers back.

“Guys!” Jimin yells.

“Are you okay, Jimin?” Yoongi asks. “Do you need some rest? Have you fed lately?”

“Tae, Jungkook, I’m going to kill you. Show them!”

Taehyung and Jungkook both seem to know that their antics have lasted long enough, because soon there is no longer the comforting weight of a vampire on his lap. It is instead replaced by a cute little bat who immediately takes flight. Hoseok screams while Yoongi just watches silently. Taehyung watches silently as well, feeling so proud because of how easily Jungkook is flying. He has almost completely gotten it down after only a few tries.

Jungkook circles around the room as they all watch, then he lands back on Taehyung’s lap, and a vampire Jungkook returns.

“What the fuck,” Yoongi says to himself.

“Told you!” Jimin turns to the two of them. “You guys are so mean.” He doesn’t actually look mad, especially when Taehyung and Jungkook giggle.

“Um?!” Hoseok says. Jungkook shrugs. “Um, hello?” Jungkook shrugs again.

“We do not know how it happened,” Taehyung says. “Namjoon is doing research for us.” Just then, Seokjin joins them in the room, clearly having gotten word of Jungkook’s bat abilities from Namjoon. Taehyung ignores all of them and turns to Jungkook. “You flew so well, my love. That was very impressive. Was it easy?”

“Yeah! It was fun!”

“Good,” Taehyung says, pecking his lips just once.

“Show me,” Seokjin says. Jungkook does so right away, clearly wanting to show off. The little bat takes flight and flutters over to Seokjin. On the way there though, he flies past Hoseok, who takes off running as he screams. Jungkook immediately redirects his attention, and Taehyung can feel the mischievous excitement through their bond, the way something in him grows lighter with a slight sharpness at the edges. Jungkook flies after Hoseok, looking so small as he terrorizes their running, screaming friend who is presumably not a fan of flying creatures.

“Hoseok, it’s just Jungkook,” Yoongi says, wrapping his mate in his arms to protect him from the big scary bat.

Jungkook lets him live and flies back to Taehyung. He lands in his lap, then shifts again. “It’s just me!” Jungkook laughs at Hoseok when he comes out of hiding.

“I’m not used to it!” Hoseok whines. Taehyung thinks about how to humans, this is not what they would suspect a gathering of vampires to be like. Whiny and giggly and fun – and scared, when they are the ones to be feared.

“Has Namjoon found anything out?” Taehyung asks.

Seokjin shakes his head. “No, but he hasn’t been able to do much research since the others are here.”

Taehyung wishes he could just send them away, but he knows Namjoon wouldn’t let him. And this doesn’t seem like this is something that is causing Jungkook any pain, so finding out more would really just be to satisfy their confusion.

“Let’s go to the living room so we don’t have to stand around,” Jimin says.

They follow after him to the living room, which has become Taehyung’s favorite room of the manor. He used to spend almost all of his time holed up in his bedroom, his library, or away from the manor altogether during the night hours. Now, there is a spot on the living room couch that has become his spot, and there is starting to be a permanent imprint of it in the cushion to prove it. There is his book usually resting on the side table too, or his favorite blanket usually on the floor because Jungkook called for him from somewhere else in the manor and he stood and let it fall and never thought to pick it up.

He is excited to spend family time in the living room like they do so often these days, and then he sees that Baekhyun is there. He’s sitting on one of the chairs beside the big couch, watching the TV. He is confused about why he has the audacity to be in their living room when it has always made it clear that he is to stay in the guest wing of the home. The spirits are too high with the others to ruin it by causing a scene, and he does not want to sour his own mood from such a silly, light evening by making a confrontation. He does not want to give him the satisfaction of leaving in his own house either, so he will pretend that he is simply not there.

By the way Jungkook is dragging him to the couch with more enthusiasm than before, Taehyung suspects that maybe he is enjoying this opportunity to show his claim on him. He lets Jungkook push him down onto his spot on the couch, then Jungkook cozies right up to him. Taehyung can feel Baekhyun watching them, and he does not think he is trying to even be subtle about it. He is sure that Jungkook can feel his stare too, because his little fledgling boldly turns his sire’s head to the side for him and kisses him. Taehyung takes it a step further and kisses him more deeply, their tongues meeting for just a brush before the kiss ends. He whispers, “I love you, my little fledgling. My darling boy.” He can see Jungkook absolutely preen, and he can feel his immense satisfaction through the bond. He wants to tease Jungkook for being such a possessive little boyfriend, but he doesn’t want Baekhyun to hear, so he just lets Jungkook kiss him once more.

“I love you, sire,” Jungkook says softly. He lays his head back against his shoulder, and they join their friends in their conversations.

He doesn’t know how he was unable to see before how full of life the manor is. He knows that, technically, all of them are dead, but no one has ever spoken of themselves that way, because no one has seen themselves that way. They see themselves as having eternal life, rather than their life having been stopped while they somehow carried on, dead in the way Taehyung thought of himself as.

But he isn’t really dead. His life isn’t a weak illusion of a life. There’s laughter and shouting and teasing, there’s warmth in his chest and everywhere Jungkook touches. There’s Hoseok and Jimin flirting with each other, making Jimin giggle in a very flustered way while Yoongi laughs watching them. There is Seokjin and Jungkook arguing about something petty, because it is often what they do and often leads to wrestling of some sort because Jungkook loves to take it too far to be annoying and get under Seokjin’s skin. Then there’s Jungkook diving into him for protection as they all laugh, and another set of things start up that he is pulled into.

There is life, and he is alive. His heart is even beating to show for it.

And it is because he found his Jungkook. It is because he found his life in him. It is because he found who he once was. It is as if Jungkook had been holding parts of who he was before. The parts of himself that had died, it’s as if they were simply being held onto by this boy to give him once he found him again. He remembered who he is with Jungkook. He remembered that eternal life is a gift, not a burden. It means that loving Jungkook will last forever, that every day will be spent receiving his affection and being allowed to love and care for him in return.

Taehyung waits until he is done with his conversation with Yoongi, then he turns Jungkook’s head so he’s looking up at him. “I love you, my darling. So much. Sire loves you so much. You know that, right?”

Jungkook melts into him. Taehyung can feel him begin to purr again, a gentle rumble of his chest. “I know, sire,” he says quietly. “I love you too. And you know that, right?”

Taehyung leans in and nudges the tips of their noses together. “Of course I do,” he says, then he kisses him. From somewhere in the manor, Taehyung hears a door slam. When they lean back, he notices that the chair previously occupied by Baekhyun is empty, but he pays it no mind, even though Jungkook looks very satisfied about it. “Would you like to go on a walk once the sun has set?” Jungkook excitedly nods. Taehyung looks out the window and sees that they’ve still got some time until then, so they join their friends again for such a nice evening spent together.

– ☾ –

“Can someone revoke your invitation?” Jungkook asks as they make their way through the snowy forest. “Like someone invited you into their house, but they found out you’re a vampire and they don’t want you there anymore or something, can they take their invitation back and you can’t enter anymore?”

“Mhm,” Taehyung nods. “It is what I intend to do with Baekhyun once his stay is through.”

“Has anyone ever done it to you?” Jungkook asks.

Suddenly, there is the briefest of flashes in his head. An unfamiliar memory he cannot see in full, only shadowy mirages and faraway sounds as if he were underwater. Yellow and white and orange like the sun, but faded like an old photograph.

“You are not welcome here,” a giggly voice says – the tone nowhere near matching the statement.

“Ah, you think you are very funny, my darling,” another voice says, equally as amused. “Please let me in; I must kiss you.”

“Fiiine, you can come in,” the boy says, sounding put out and inconvenienced before the other steps inside and covers his face in kisses.

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. He shakes his head and blinks a few times, confused about the strange thought. He looks over at Jungkook, who has a furrow between his eyebrows too before the lines between them smooth out. “I… I’m not sure,” Taehyung says. It is the answer he often gives because he does not remember much of his life, but this time… he feels like he may have experienced it, but the memory almost feels like someone else’s, not his own, even though there was a strange familiarity to it.

“Are you able to kick me out?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung laughs. They step out of the bounds of the forest and into the city’s park. “It is my manor, so I can.”

“Can I kick people out since I live there?”

Taehyung chuckles. “I believe so. You could not kick out the others who live there, but if they are strangers, I think you would have the ability to.”

“Sire?” Jungkook says.

“Yeah?”

“I’m… I’m kind of scared that I’m going to miss going out in the sun… Only being able to be outside during nighttime.”

“I understand,” Taehyung says softly. He wishes there were something he could do, but that really is a rule they cannot cheat. At least not for a long time, when they can build up some tolerance – but even then, they cannot be beneath the direct sunlight. “I wish there was something I could do for you to not make it that way. But it is the reason why there are so many windows in the manor, so we can be in the light even if we cannot be in the sun. And I will do anything I can to make it easier for you.”

They step out of the snowy forest, into the snowy park. They have made this same walk almost every night since Taehyung felt comfortable enough to let Jungkook out in public. They follow the same trail Taehyung always took, sometimes wandering out further if they do not feel like returning home yet. It is a nice little ritual, a way to spend some quiet time alone outside of the lively manor.

“Do vampires have therapists?”

Taehyung laughs, the sound loud in the quiet park. “I’m sure there are some. Would you like to visit one?”

“No, just wondering. Do vampires have doctors?”

“Not that I know of. There would not be much of a use for them.”

“Are vampires friends with each other?”

Taehyung laughs. “Well, we live with five other vampires who I consider very close friends.”

“Yeah, but if we’re walking right now and came across a vampire who was a stranger, what would happen?”

“Hm, good question. It would depend on what kind of person they are. In general though, I would steer clear of any vampires that you do not know. It would be the safer option. I do not think many of them are good like the ones we have found.”

“Do–”

“My darling, are you so deep in your curious head that you have not noticed where we are?” They’ve stopped walking, and Jungkook finally looks around him. “You did say it was tradition.” Taehyung erupts into laughter when he finds himself no longer on the ground. Jungkook sets him on the bridge’s railing. Taehyung wraps his arms around his neck and his legs around his torso to pull him closer. Taehyung kisses him, with much more confidence than that night it first occurred. No less awe though, no less disbelief. No less bewilderment that someone so lovely wants to kiss him, no less devastation at the warmth he can feel from the kisses – on his lips and inside of him.

Taehyung cups his cheeks when their lips part. “My darling boy,” he whispers. “You have made me feel whole again. You are what has been missing.”

Jungkook nuzzles into his palm. “It felt like you were missing from me too…” he says quietly. “I didn’t know until I had you, but now I could feel how something wasn’t where it was supposed to be.”

Taehyung blinks, and he sees a boy. Hair the same as Jungkook’s, eyes just the same too. Looking at him just the same, but in different clothes, a different background. Looking just like the boy who stands before him when he blinks once more. Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. Jungkook matches the same look, his eyes unfocused before he sees him again.

“Come, my darling, let’s continue our walk and continue with your curious questions.” Taehyung hops off the bridge’s ledge, and he pecks Jungkook’s lips. He takes his hand, and they continue their stroll, venturing into the city to get lost between the skyscrapers.

“Why do you think we have a bond?” Jungkook asks. “Since Namjoon said others don’t.”

It is something Taehyung has thought about each and every day, wondering how he got so lucky with such a thing. But, “I do not know. Perhaps I love you so much that it tied you to me eternally.” He could easily believe it; he thinks the love he has for Jungkook could do something so wonderful. It it so much, so all-consuming, so transcending that it could create something this magical.

They aimlessly turn a corner and walk down the empty sidewalk. Taehyung believes it is a weekday, and it’s almost midnight, so even the occasional bar or nightclub that brings other shows of life to these walks are not open, and the ones that are are not busy. It is just him and Jungkook and the city lights.

“We have talked about my thoughts when seeing you for the first time,” Taehyung says as he drags his finger through the piled up snow on a dark window ledge, “but what were your thoughts upon meeting me?”

“I… I was scared and confused, because I’d just drank blood, which was something new in my life,” Taehyung laughs, “and I woke up so thirsty in such a weird way, and I was in someplace I had never seen before, and everything was so loud and bright and clear, and I was in bed with a stranger, so everything was confusing and scary. But then I looked at you and… I dunno. Something clicked into place, almost. Nothing even happened, but I just knew that I was safe there, with you. And when I could actually think about anything but feeding, I thought about how pretty you are, obviously. The most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I’m serious. And your voice is so nice to listen to. Every time I started to feel overwhelmed, just listening to you talk and listening to your voice was enough to calm me down, on top of the things you were actually saying. It’s just–” Jungkook stops them. He turns to Taehyung, the night sky of his eyes sparkling with the stars of the lights around them. “I know sires aren’t even really a thing, and that most vampires would have seen me being killed,” Taehyung holds back a whimper, “and wouldn’t even look twice. But you–you did, because you were looking for me. And then you turned me, and you’ve just–you’ve been so nice from the very beginning and made it so none of this is scary or hard. And I’m just… I’m so happy I have you. I–I love you so much, and it–it’s so w-weird b-because it feels like I was missing you my entire life and then I wasn’t. It’s like I was always looking for you before I even knew you existed and… I just–I love you. I love you.”

Taehyung pulls him into a hug. The both of them bury their faces in each other’s necks as they cry. Wholeness, completeness, the feeling that Jungkook is finally back with him. He doesn’t even question that strange line of thought; he just lets it be true, that he was missing Jungkook, that maybe he’s been searching for him for a long time, and he’s finally with him again, and with him forever.

Taehyung leans back. He wipes the tears from Jungkook’s cheeks, watching them glisten like snowflakes. “My darling boy,” he says quietly. “I will spend every single day of my long, long life making sure you know how loved you are. How safe with me you are. I will never allow anything to happen to you, and if there are ever moments you are feeling down, I will be there to hold you during them. My darling boy. My little fledgling. My mate.” Jungkook rests their foreheads together. Their tears become one as they slide down their cheeks. Taehyung would think that he did not know a love like this could exist, but something in him knows. Something in him knows that this existed before, that it continued to hide within him until he found his boy again.

It’s quite a while later before they finally part. They laugh as they dry their cheeks and sniffle, then they join hands and continue their walk. It’s… it’s so strange, so wonderful, so wonderfully strange and strangely wonderful to be walking like this and know they will always be walking like this. That the boy at his side will be here always, that this is forever his partner in life.

“May I take you on our first date tomorrow?” Taehyung asks. “It does not seem fair to you that I have already claimed you as my mate before I have even taken you on a proper date.”

“Yeah, it’s very scandalous that you haven’t properly courted me,” Jungkook says. Taehyung knows he’s teasing him, but he is right. “But yes, I would like that.”

“How is tomorrow? Do you have any plans?”

“Any plans I had would be plans you have, so if you don’t, then I am free.”

“I have a date planned, actually.”

“Can I tag along?”

Taehyung laughs. “I’m sure that would be okay, yes.”

They turn another corner, and this street is very familiar to Taehyung. They all are, since he’s spent almost every single night (before meeting Jungkook) for the past several decades walking through the city. This one is more familiar than others though, with its tree-lined streets and older brick buildings, because they soon come upon the bookstore.

“I used to come here at least once a week for several years,” Taehyung says. “I should stop in soon. I hope I have not made the owner worry.”

“Who else do you know?” Jungkook asks.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know all of the people in your life, just the ones we live with. Who else are you friends with? Or people you have known for a while and don’t consider friends.”

“Hmm,” Taehyung thinks. He’s known many people through his life, but only a handful of them have stuck. “Well, the ones we live with, of course. Along with the two that we emailed earlier. Felix and Chan have some friends too who I would not consider my friends, but I do have a long acquaintanceship with them. And I believe that is it. I think you will get along very nicely with Chan. He is very similar to you.”

“What happens if I go out in the sun and stay there even though it burns?” A curious little fledgling with nonstop questions.

“Then you would burn until your skin catches fire. In which case, the fire would not go out even if we tried to extinguish it, and you would continue to burn until you are nothing but ashes.”

“Oh wow,” Jungkook says.

“Yes, so please do not continue to test your tolerance to the sun. You would not catch fire in a matter of seconds, so if you for some reason are caught out in it, you would likely have a chance to escape to somewhere shaded. But still, please do not take any chances. I cannot live without you.”

“What if I stopped feeding?”

“Are you planning on committing suicide?”

“No!” Jungkook says. “I’m trying to do the opposite. I don’t want to do things that’d kill me.”

“If you stopped feeding, you would go into a state of dormancy. Most likely indefinitely, until someone comes to help you. But it would be very difficult to get to that state, because once you become very thirsty, you will most likely not be able to stop yourself from attacking whomever is near.”

“Have you ever been like that?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Why?”

“I… I believe that something bad happened to me. It sent me into a craze where I was lost for a while, followed by a long depression where I stopped feeding.”

“What happened?” Jungkook asks quietly.

“I do not know,” Taehyung says. “I think I blocked that out too.” He does not mean to make his tone clipped, especially when anything of his is Jungkook’s to know. It just comes out that way naturally. When he tries to soften it, it’s softened with sadness that he does not mean to show either.

“Well, whatever it was, it won’t happen again,” Jungkook says. “Neither will anything bad, because you have me now, and I’ll protect you from anything bad happening.”

Taehyung chuckles. “I believe that is very true, my darling. Nothing could ever be truly bad if I have you anyway.”

– ☾ –

“Tae, can I talk to you in my office?” Namjoon asks when they arrive home.

“Yes, I will be there in a moment.” Namjoon nods and walks back to his office while Taehyung takes off his shoes and jacket. Jungkook has already quickly done so and is cozied up in bed when Taehyung walks out of the closet. Taehyung brushes his fingers through his hair and leans down to press a kiss between his eyebrows. “I will be right back, my love.”

“Hurry up,” Jungkook pouts.

Taehyung chuckles. “I will.”

He heads to Namjoon’s office, where thankfully only he and Seokjin are. “Good evening,” Taehyung says as he sits in the chair on the other side of his desk.

“Hey, so I think I’ll need your help with something tomorrow. We are going to take the fledglings outside, and we’ll need all the help we can get to contain them if something happens.”

“No,” Taehyung says. “I will take no part in this. I do not want them here in the first place, so any work you do is yours alone – and the others if they would like to help you. It will not involve me.”

“But–”

“No,” Taehyung says again. “Jungkook-ah and I have a date planned for tomorrow night anyway.”

“Oh, where are you going?” Seokjin asks.

“I am not sure yet. I will think about it tonight.”

“What about the art museum?” Namjoon asks after a long pause. “We still have the key to get in and the code to deactivate the alarms. You can spend time there alone.” Taehyung watches Seokjin’s eyes quickly flit to Namjoon, trying to convey something in his expression, but Namjoon does not look at him.

Taehyung pays it no mind, because his excitement grows. “Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. Do you have the key and code on you?”

Namjoon opens his desk drawer and ruffles around, then he hands him the things he will need. “You can go through the front door. The alarm system is hidden behind the painting on the pillar in front of it.”

Taehyung nods. “Thank you. And thank you for the suggestion. Have a good night.”

When he leaves and is halfway down the hall, he hears Seokjin whisper, “You’re suggesting that as their first date?”

It’s followed by what he believes Namjoon is saying, “It’s time that they know.”

Taehyung does not know what that is about. Seokjin was perhaps talking about how this is a grand idea for a first date, but Taehyung doesn’t mind. He will find even grander things to give to Jungkook; this will just be the first of their long life together.

He returns back to their room, where his fledgling looks so comfortable and cozy wrapped in the fluffy blankets and lost amongst the pillows. “Hello, my pretty darling,” Taehyung says.

“Hi,” Jungkook says sleepily. Taehyung has no idea how he manages to both be and sound sleepy when they do not require sleep. “Hurry up. Wanna cuddle.”

Taehyung slides into bed beside Jungkook, then he hesitates. He bites the inside of his cheek, forcing himself to say the words. “Would you allow me to–I mean, if it’s okay with you–could I maybe–” Jungkook is pressing his lips together, looking at him amused. He is clearly not intending to lend him a helping hand. “Would you allow me to feed from you?” he asks in a long exhale.

“That’s the first time you’ve asked me and didn’t just do it because I did first.”

“I am trying to take better care of myself for you,” Taehyung says quietly. “And I am a bit hungry now, since I have been allowing myself to feed more often.”

“You can feed whenever you want,” Jungkook says. “But thank you for asking me. My polite baby.”

Taehyung chuckles. “I did not learn my manners from you, that is for sure.”

Before Taehyung bites, Jungkook asks, “Do you not like when I call you baby?”

“I like it very, very much,” he says, even as he blushes about it. “Why do you ask?”

“I dunno. Just… I’m your fledgling and you’re the sire, so…”

“So you’re my fledgling, and I’m your baby. We can be both.” Taehyung feels that even more when he bites Jungkook, and Jungkook’s hand goes to the back of his head to pet his hair, soothing him as he feeds because he knows he sometimes gets overwhelmed because of it. It’s just–he’s never enjoyed feeding before, and it’s not just his fledgling’s blood that he’s drinking, but the love of his life’s. His special, wonderful love who is a part of him just as much as Taehyung is part of himself.

“My baby,” Jungkook says quietly, his hand just resting on the back of his neck. “I’m so glad you’re feeding more. Want my baby to be healthy so he can live with me forever.” Taehyung huffs a laugh against his neck once he’s swallowed another mouthful. He takes one more just to be greedy, then he slides his fangs out and licks the puncture holes to heal them more quickly. He kisses the spot too.

“Thank you for feeding me,” Taehyung says, then he lets Jungkook pull him into his arms. His head rests on his chest, his ear against his heart that beats just like his own. He rests his own hand on his heart, wanting to feel the moment when they fall in sync with one another's before they beat on their own until it’s time to align again.

But Taehyung can hear Jungkook’s heartbeat, and he can feel his own, and it is not a matter of waiting for them to beat at the same moment. Because it is all they are doing. Taehyung listens and feels for seconds, for almost a full minute, enough for them to have surely fallen out of rhythm. But the longer he listens, the more it becomes clear that they will not. Their hearts beat the same.

“Are you noticing our heartbeats?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung leans back and looks at him. “You knew?”

Jungkook nods sleepily. “When you’re holding me, it’s how I fall asleep. Listening to yours and feeling mine. Then feeling the bond too, and your arms around me.”

Taehyung rests his hand on Jungkook’s cheek. “My darling boy,” he says, gazing into his eyes. “I was meant to be yours. I was meant to find you.” He believes that he truly was. Perhaps he had been wandering for so long at night because he was looking for him without knowing what he was searching for. “You are everything to me. I love you so dearly.”

Jungkook smiles, just a gentle curve to his lips. “I love you too, baby.” Taehyung leans forward and kisses him softly. He lies his head back down. He rests his head against Jungkook’s heart, his hand against his own, and he falls asleep to the sound of them living together.

Chapter Text

“Here?!” Jungkook says. His eyes are as round as the full moon as they walk up the grand steps of the art museum.

Taehyung has always adored the art museum. Well, the outside, because he has never actually stepped foot inside. But he has always loved walking past it. It is quite large, taking up half of the block it is on, with gardens on each side held in by tall snow-topped hedges that still hold their leaves even in the winter season. It is made of beige stone, looking worn and weathered like much of the art inside it. Stone steps lead to arched entryways, and arched alcoves are lit up by spotlights above them, where banners of the featured exhibits hang. Planters are stationed between each entryway, ivy overflowing out of the sides, and flowers are surrounding them – poinsettias right now to fit the season. Taehyung has always wanted to come here, but it just never felt like the right time. It does now.

“But it’s closed.”

“It is,” Taehyung says. “But we have a key.” He pulls it from his coat pocket and unlocks the door, then he quickly disables the alarm before locking the door behind Jungkook.

“How come you have a key?”

“One of the curators here is a vampire that Namjoon knows. Many of us have keys to different places around the city, since we are unable to enjoy many of its features during the hours they are open. May I take your jacket, my darling?”

“Such a gentleman,” Jungkook says as he allows Taehyung to take his coat off of him.

Taehyung kisses his cheek from behind. “I am indeed,” he says. He leads them out of the foyer and into the coat check room, and he hangs up his and Jungkook’s jackets. He returns to his love, looking him over as he walks closer because he will never get his fill of admiring.

Jungkook, who Taehyung has noticed likes to dress casually and comfortably, is dressed up a little for the occasion. He’s wearing a pair of loose black trousers, with a plain black t-shirt – which isn’t very dressed up, but his own version of it; it means more this way anyway because he put in effort while remaining himself, and he is the most beautiful when he is comfortable. The effect of his eighties heartthrob hair is even more present with the way he is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching his boyfriend get closer. “You’re so beautiful, sire,” he says.

Taehyung’s confidence wavers because even such a simple sentence is enough to send him into a fit of shyness.

He does think he looks rather… appealing though, he supposes, because he certainly tried very hard. It is their first date, and he wants to look presentable and impress this boy he is so taken by. He is wearing a black turtleneck top, paired with black trousers and a black blazer that he hung up with Jungkook’s jacket. He is even having a good hair day, the waves falling partially over his eyes in a sultry fashion. He realizes that he and Jungkook are both wearing all black, certainly looking the part of a pair of vampires.

“You are beautiful as well, my darling,” Taehyung says. “May I hold your hand?” Jungkook offers his hand, not even teasing him for his old-fashionedness, and Taehyung takes it.

He turns on the necessary lights to set the mood he desires. He doesn’t turn them all on the way they are when the museum is open, instead just the lights that shine onto the art, and the low lights that line the halls. The museum around them becomes warm and dim, and it is wonderful. Before their arrival, he instructed the curator to play quiet piano music throughout the space so it does not feel eerie (in a way Taehyung has noticed that Jungkook is sensitive to, as shown through his comments each time they’ve been in the forest) with only the sound the two make in such a vast, echoing building. All of it together makes it feel so romantic, such a lovely setting for a first date.

The ceiling is made of glass in the entire center of the entrance foyer, almost as if it were a conservatory. Taehyung can see the night sky through the ceiling, and he’s sure it is beautiful during the day when the space is filled with sunlight. There are stone steps that lead to a platform with a statue in the middle, then more steps that lead downstairs. He sees several arches leading in every direction from the center, to the rest of the museum.

He allows Jungkook to lead them in whichever direction he would like to start. “I’ve never been to a museum before,” he says. He is looking around at everything in awe before they’ve even gotten to one of the rooms with art displayed yet. He points out the details on the ceiling, swirling stone with cherubs sculpted in that Taehyung wouldn’t have noticed, because he is only looking at Jungkook himself.

It makes sense that he has not been to a museum, considering his upbringing and what brought him to the city, and how he lived once here. There are so many things Jungkook has probably not experienced. They have a never ending lifetime to get to all of it and more. Taehyung feels a burst of excitement and gratitude that he gets to be the one that Jungkook will do it all with.

“Well, we can visit them all,” Taehyung says. “The history museum, the science museum, contemporary art, the aquarium, planetarium. We can go to them all, along with anything else you wish to do.”

They enter the first room full of art, starting all the way back in the renaissance period. The room itself feels like the rebirth of art with everything feeling saturated with color despite the way it has faded through time. Like all others who have stepped into this room, they are immediately drawn to Birth of Venus that stretches across the wall. It is bordered by its gold frame and fitting seamlessly into the pale blue wall, a spotlight shining onto it that draws them in like a siren song.

But before Taehyung can even admire the marvelous work of art, Jungkook asks, “Were you around when that was painted?”

Taehyung turns to him. He stares. After several silent seconds, he asks, “Are you asking me if I was alive during the renaissance period? If I am, what–” he does the quick math in his head, then continues incredulously, “five hundred and forty years old?” Jungkook just nods. Taehyung cannot tell if he is joking; either option is likely. “No, my darling, I was not around when Birth of Venus was painted. My goodness.” He huffs when Jungkook wraps his arm around him and pulls him close, kissing his temple.

“You were around during some of the later eras though, right?”

Taehyung hums. “Indeed. I shall point out to you which ones were from my time.”

They admire Birth of Venus in silence, giving her her deserved due, tracing her beauty with their eyes and noticing the little details that Botticelli masterfully conveyed on the canvas. And through the use of tempera, no less – a very difficult medium to paint with. It did not hinder his ability to paint beautifully, only making his talent even more astounding.

They wander through the rest of the paintings in the renaissance room. They comment on the clothes in the scenes, the subject matter, each of their favorite parts in the works of art they see. Taehyung should have anticipated Jungkook’s eye for art more, considering he has heard of his penchant for drawing. He has such interesting comments to make, and Taehyung loves learning more about who he is from the things he notices in each work of art.

The renaissance room then fades into baroque (and includes a, “No, Jungkook, I was not alive when Rembrandt was painting,” even though they’re already getting quite close to when he was around). They lean in to look at the texture of the brushstrokes on the paintings, and they lean in to feel the texture of their kisses on their lips. Taehyung gently slaps Jungkook’s outstretched hand to stop him from touching one of the paintings, and he gently nuzzles into Jungkook’s outstretched hand when it rests on his cheek.

They eventually enter the romantic period, with its halls painted a dark red and lined with paintings of deep, moody colors. “This is around the time I was born,” he finally says.

Jungkook perks up, his eyes going wide as he looks around with extreme interest. He looks at one of the placards beside a painting and says, “Wow, the eighteen-hundreds?”

“Mhm,” Taehyung nods. “Of course, my life itself did not look like this. These are just paintings and renditions. Not everything was cloudy and dark,” he chuckles.

“Do you miss any periods of your life?” Jungkook asks as they stroll from painting to painting.

“No,” Taehyung says with certainty. Perhaps he misses the brief moments of his life before he was turned, when people were not inconveniences and he could feel the warmth of the sunlight on him. But those things cannot compare to the warmth he feels with his love; it is as though he can feel the sunlight even in the night now. He would never trade this for anything else. “My favorite period is the one where I met you.”

Taehyung tells him about the romantic art they pass, some of the facts he knows, about one of the painters he was acquainted with. And as they progress through the eras, they continue to be moments he was there for. Not there beside the easel as they were painted, as he tells Jungkook who keeps assuming such, but paintings from a time in history that he recognizes – even if there are some major gaps. Many major gaps, he realizes. There were entire periods of art that he was not there for, despite being alive (or dead, really). He was lost to the darkness of who he is deep down and missed out on so much.

They enter the period of impressionist art, which is one of those times, unfortunately. He would have liked to been around during such a time. He has always admired the strange methods that were telling of the time, to have learned how to paint in such ways. He is distracted by any thoughts when stop in front of Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies by Claude Monet. With the painting of the green bridge and lazy pond and willow trees beside them, Jungkook wraps his arms around Taehyung’s neck. Taehyung’s arms go around his waist, and he leans in to kiss him. It feels like the spotlight shining onto the painting is really for them, like they’re the subject and the painting is just the background.

“You are so wonderful, Jungkook,” Taehyung says quietly, his voice mixing with the notes of the quiet piano sonata. “You are so lovely. I hope you know the way I adore you. How lucky I feel to call you mine. Every struggle I have faced, every moment of despair that has overcome me – I would go through a thousand years more of it if I knew it would bring me to you.”

He reaches up to brush the teardrop from Jungkook’s cheek. Jungkook just gazes at him, looking deeply into his eyes for so long. He leans in, and he kisses his cheek. His lips linger before they do the same to the tip of his nose. When he kisses his eye, then his lips next, Taehyung realizes he is following his trail of beauty marks. Taehyung feels lucky, because every time he kisses Jungkook’s lips, he gets to kiss him there too, that tiny little spot that enchanted him the night he first saw him.

“I love you,” Jungkook says softly. “I–I love you.” Taehyung kisses him softly to soothe the feelings rising too strongly in him. The emotions so thick in the words that it make them difficult to say is more beautiful than any way any writer has ever written about love before.

They stay there, like lily pads over a pond, kissing for what feels like hours. Just presses of their lips together over and over and over again. The museum is quiet except for the sound of their kisses, the sound of a piano playing a song just for them. The sound of Taehyung’s fingers scratching Jungkook’s hair, the feeling of Jungkook humming from the feeling. Sometimes their tongues brush, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes Jungkook nibbles on Taehyung’s bottom lip, sometimes Taehyung does it back when he overcomes his shyness. They kiss for every water lily, every flower, every leaf in the painting. They kiss for themselves because they never want to stop.

Jungkook takes Taehyung’s hand again, and he kisses the top of it as they keep walking.

They wander into the Edwardian period finally, with its lighter colors and soft brushstrokes, making the time period feel sunny and gentle. Painted skies with fluffy clouds, reflections in water and sunlight across the painters’ muses. It is his favorite period of art, he thinks. There is more familiarity in it than there is in the others, an easiness that feels like it was once his own too. It is really the last period of art he is able to recall being a part of. Everything after this has been lost to him.

“I really like how all of the skies are painted during this time,” Jungkook says. He points out the fluffy clouds in every painting they pass – even adorably finding shapes in some of them.

Taehyung watches Jungkook as he walks. His beautiful, beautiful boy. His eyes are alight with excitement over nothing at all, really, and his hands move with as much liveliness as he talks – even as he still holds Taehyung’s hand. He is just so adorable that it is hard to believe he is a vampire. He seems a creature much too soft to be anything like him.

Jungkook abruptly stops talking. He freezes. His lips part, and his face goes blank.

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. He follows his line of sight.

His stomach drops. Every lovely thought he had been thinking escapes him, because every other one in his head does the same.

There is a painting on the wall.

It is done in the same soft, light colors of the rest of those around them – in shades of white and light brown and golden yellow for the sun. The painting is of a boy, lounging on a bed. It is beside a window, which is open to allow the sunlight and fresh air inside, showing them a view of the sky and a brief glimpse of the town carrying on a floor below.

The boy lying on the bed is wearing brown pants that reach down to his mid shin, along with a flowy white shirt, unbuttoned far down his chest to reveal his skin. He is lying on his back but is turned onto his side, one arm extended along the bed as his head rests on it, his black wavy hair delicately trailing down. He is looking at the painter with a look of such softness in his eyes, surrounded by light and warmth.

It’s not… it can’t be.

Taehyung glances at the plaque on the wall. The painting is titled My Love, with the space for the artist listed as Unknown.

But… but… Taehyung does know, he thinks. But he–it is not–it can’t be.

But he would know his love’s face anywhere. Those dark round eyes, his sweet nose, his beautiful hands. He hears a hiccup beside him, a panicked inhaled breath. He feels his love’s hand in his own start to tremble, or it might be his own. He looks over, and Jungkook is looking at the painting. There are tears swimming in his eyes, and he looks at Taehyung. Taehyung’s tears slide down his cheeks at the same time Jungkook’s do, and whatever has been keeping them in the dark in their heads is finally unveiled. The curtains are thrown open, the sheets lifted off their memories with the breeze as light pours over everything. Memories and visions and moments and feelings, all there, given to them at once. Lying in bed with Jungkook, in the small apartment above the stable where his love worked during the days. Walking through the town at night when the sun left the sky. Jungkook around their small home as Taehyung painted him, so much laughter, so much light, so much love. Promises of making this last forever, promises of biting him on his birthday as he joked about it being his last and his first, and those promises getting snuffed out as if their love were only a flame that could be so easily extinguished between two cruel fingers.

The dark period in his life that lasted decades, years upon years he let the monster consume him. Years that were shrouded in darkness, and when he finally pulled himself out of it, the darkness spread over the memories of his love like a fog fighting to protect him from the pain of it all.

But it is all there now. His love, his love, the boy he loved more than anything in the world. The boy he found again, the boy who is his again after so many years of darkness.

And the journals, he remembers. The journals he read. It was them, it was him, it was their love. It was their life, and every moment he wrote of he can see in his head now, because those moments were his, were theirs, and they’re there again.

His love, his love, his whole world, his life, his Jungkook, he’s here, he’s right here. Taehyung sinks to his knees as a sob of despair and relief and pain and celebration and mourning and–and rapture tears out of his chest. Then Jungkook, his Jungkook, is in front of him, on his knees too, pulling him to him, holding him in his trembling arms as he sobs into his neck, as they realize together that they found each other again, they found their way back to each other. “Jungkook,” he cries, crawling into his lap, wrapping his arms and legs around him, holding him so tight and close as if it could keep him here, as if he cannot be taken from him again like this. And he won’t be, he tries to tell himself. He is his forever, they are here forever, and he will never be taken away. But he lived over a century without him, and he cannot live another, he cannot even live a day, a minute, a second. He cannot let go, he will not let anything take him from him again. The relief he feels is so tinged with anguish that he does not know how he truly is feeling; he just knows that painful, horrible wails are being torn from his chest, and Jungkook is crying too as he holds on just as tight.

“Taehyung,” Jungkook sobs, the word barely audible amidst their crying. “Taehyung, Taehyung, my baby.” Taehyung only cries harder. The familiarity in that word, in that voice. The way Jungkook called him that so, so long ago. “My baby,” he would say when he greeted him after his return from work, smelling of hay and dirt. “My baby,” he would whisper when he turned over in bed to find Taehyung still awake, when he’d kiss him softly where he could reach before falling back asleep. “My baby,” he would laugh when Taehyung dragged him through the town at night and they could live out in the open without the sun halting them.

Taehyung leans back, only enough to look at Jungkook, because he cannot leave him even if he is still so close. Neither of them wipe their faces, because they know it will be of no use. But Taehyung has to know. “Do you remember?” he asks, terrified that it will be only him. He is the one who was cursed to a life of having to live without his love; Jungkook’s life was taken from him much, much too soon.

“Yes,” Jungkook cries. Their foreheads rest together, and they sob. Taehyung’s hands rest on the sides of Jungkook’s neck, Jungkook’s hands around his waist holding him as desperately as Taehyung is, like he would fight to the death against anything that tried to take Taehyung away from him. “It was–you’re–” He cannot get out his thoughts, and Taehyung would not be able to either. All he can do is see it all flit through his head. A life that was once briefly theirs, and a life they are finally given back, with nothing to take it from them.

“Yes,” Taehyung says. He tilts his head up and kisses him. It is wet and messy and full of tears, but they kiss like they are reuniting. As if they haven’t loved each other this whole time, as if they’re finally meeting again. And they are, they are. It is still the same silly, sweet fledgling with his childlike wonder that he has known, because it is the same silly, sweet, childlike Jungkook from back then. The Jungkook he has loved and adored for all of these months isn’t being replaced or written over; something in him is just unlocking so he can remember who he was, who they were as it joins with who they are now, so many years later. “Jungkook, my love.” Taehyung goes back to hugging him again, holding him desperately. “My love, my darling. I–I had never felt such pain in all of my life. I had never felt such anguish as I did when you were taken from me. I–I–” He remembers moments after too, snippets through the darkness. Sitting out in the bright sun, his skin burning and blistering as he screamed in pain, but it could not compare to what he was feeling inside. Cursing himself that he could not withstand it enough for him to fully burn, to catch fire and burn until he was ashes. When he stopped feeding, trying to make his body fall into dormancy, the closest thing he could get to death. When he stabbed a stake through his chest again and again and again, knowing it would not work but hoping something would help him and free him from this agony. When he woke up from his darkness and could not remember anything from the past several decades, and he went through his life without feeling a thing. Walks at night, wandering aimlessly, alone in the darkness because there was nothing else for him to do. He wonders when that started, if something in him awoke and began searching for his love, even when he did not know that there was anything to find. Moments he would fall to his knees in anguished despair, begging and begging and begging for something he could never figure out, the way he cried and screamed and felt as if everything was being taken again, but the pain was too much that he could not see through it.

Taehyung leans back and rests their foreheads together as their wails die down, but their tears do not stop falling, only do so silently. “My Jungkook,” he whispers. “How I loved you. My darling. I love you, Jungkook. I love you.”

“I love you, Tae,” Jungkook says in his beautiful, gentle voice.

Taehyung thinks an hour must pass just like that. The two of them sitting on the museum floor in the near-darkness, their foreheads resting together as their tears dry on their cheeks. “You remember me?” he finally whispers.

Jungkook nods. “I do,” he says quietly. “Our little place we lived above the stable. You would paint, and I would watch you, because I was so in love with you that I could lay there for hours and just stare. We would walk at night, and I would bring you little gifts home from work every day.”

A giggle bubbles up out of Taehyung, threatening to become a sob. He had forgotten about that. “When you–y-you made a flower crown from the horse’s hay.”

Jungkook laughs and nods. He leans back and looks at him. He looks as rough as Taehyung feels – looks just like he has been sobbing for an hour. Jungkook reaches out and wipes the drying tears from Taehyung’s cheeks, not even paying mind to his own. “And when I went to work every morning, there'd be a piece of paper in my pocket of a drawing and a note from you that you’d make while I slept.”

“How can you remember?” Taehyung asks, his mind reeling. “You–y-you died.” He chokes on the word. “I–I held you as y-you were dying, I watched it happen. It’s–you–”

“Calm down, Tae,” Jungkook whispers, petting his hair. “Calm down, baby. It’s okay. I’m here.” Taehyung takes deep breaths to try to regulate himself. Jungkook is right here. He is alive. He is looking at him, and he is now kissing each of his cheeks. He’s right here, his forever. “I don’t know,” he finally says. “I don’t know. It’s just–it’s all there in my head. Because I was there, but it’s–I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Hey, that’s okay, my love,” Taehyung says, petting him now. “You do not have to try to figure it out now. It’s a lot. This is not the time to think logically. How about we go home though, hm? We can return to finish our wandering of the museum another night. I think we should go home now and be together there.”

Jungkook nods. Slowly, with his body aching from the strain of his cries, he climbs off of Jungkook. He stretches out his legs and his back, then Jungkook takes his hand. They turn to the painting again.

His Jungkook, his love, lying on their bed, watching Taehyung as he paints them. “I remember that day,” Taehyung says.

“You woke me up really early, right at sunrise so you could paint the good parts right when the sun was on me at noon. I fell back asleep once you put me how you wanted me, and when I woke up again, you were still painting. I woke up to that so many mornings.”

“And you often whined when you saw I was not beside you,” Taehyung chuckles.

“I’ll do it now too, so you better not let me wake up without you.”

Taehyung turns and kisses his cheek. “Never, my darling. Come, let’s go home.”

– ☾ –

The house is silent and empty when they return. Taehyung really would not have even noticed it if it weren’t for the note on the bed, because he has been so lost in his head, still falling into fits of crying and collapsing and coming apart again even on their walk home.

We will all stay away until you call for us. If you need anything, please reach out, and please take your time. Only Seokjin and I know, and we will not tell. I am happy you have found your way back to one another again. I have not seen you alive in the whole time I’ve known you, Tae. I recognized something returning to you before I knew what it was.

We all love you both, and that is just as certain in every lifetime as your love for each other is.

-Namjoon

Tears stream down Taehyung’s cheeks, because he doesn’t think they will stop anytime soon. It helps, though, when his love continues to be his silly, cute self. Like with everything else, Jungkook is so accepting of the strange things that are thrown at him, and his lightheartedness soothes Taehyung in the way it always does. “Let me take your coat for you, sire,” he says formally. Taehyung wetly laughs as he allows Jungkook to take his coat off for him – that he unceremoniously just throws on the couch in their bedroom with his own.

Taehyung turns to him. This is his Jungkook. This is the only boy he has ever loved, who he loved so deeply and truly that the love never died, that it couldn’t, that it was too much that it was inevitable that it came back to him. Taehyung lets Jungkook sit him down on the bed, then Jungkook stands before him. He holds onto the hem of his black turtleneck, and he asks, “Will you let me?”

Taehyung knows what he means, but even if he didn’t, the answer would always be, “Yes.”

Slowly, with his fingers dragging along his bare skin, Jungkook pulls his top up. By the time he sets it aside, goosebumps have risen on Taehyung’s body. A shiver passes through when he watches Jungkook take his own shirt off too. Taehyung does not get a moment to admire, because he is being gently pushed onto his back, and Jungkook moves on top of him. He delicately moves a lock of hair from his eyes.

“Let me be the sire tonight,” Jungkook whispers to him. “Let me take care of you. You’re my baby, let me take care of you.” Taehyung can only shakily nod. He wants that. He wants that so badly. He wants–he wants him to feel him, to be treated softly, to be loved gently when he feels so heavy with remembering.

He whimpers when Jungkook kisses him. Jungkook kisses him so deeply, so fully, so indulgently, like he’s trying to make up for almost a century without this, even though in the time they have had each other again, they’ve made up for it without knowing.

Now, though, he kisses him as if he was missing him too. He kisses him as the Jungkook he was, and the Jungkook he is, because they are the same. He kisses Taehyung as the young vampire he was, and as the one he is now, who dealt with so much pain and had forgotten what had caused it and what it all felt like. They kiss as sire and fledgling, as two people in a love so great it could not be erased.

Jungkook’s hand runs up and down his chest, over his stomach, along his side, down the slope of his shoulders, touching him everywhere for the first time and the hundredth time. Feeling his bare skin, the warmth of his body. It feels so old and familiar, and so new and intoxicating. He feels every spot Jungkook touches glow as the bond reacts in a way it never has. The warmth, the humming, the recognition, it is all too much in his chest, right where Jungkook is touching.

He quietly sighs when Jungkook begins kissing down his jaw. Long presses of his lips along his neck, teasing his fangs across the sensitive skin, but not enough to be anything more than a tease. Taehyung wants this, he wants to lay here and be kissed, wants to be kissed by Jungkook until everything in him softens in the way it always has. Jungkook kisses his collarbone, his chest, all the way to his nipple that he carefully takes into his mouth. Taehyung’s hand goes to Jungkook’s hair as the softest of breathy moans escapes from lips. Jungkook licks over his nipple, slow and wet. He gently nibbles down, leaning back to tug on it before he sucks on it again, licking around it to soothe the pull. Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut, trying to hold back his whimper. He kisses his way to the other one. Taehyung pets Jungkook’s hair as he sucks on his nipple, flicking his tongue against the hardened bud. His other hand gently rolls his nipple between his thumb and forefinger as he carefully bites down. He does it all so gently, so softly, passionate in its carefulness. Jungkook treats him so softly, as if he is delicate and not indestructible. As if he is a gentle creature and not a monster. As if he is worthy of a love so soft.

Jungkook kisses down his soft stomach, and the kisses turn even softer to match. There is a smile to them now, because this is not new. This is what he has always done. He has always kissed him softly here, because he knows it always made Taehyung giggle, because he is ticklish there. It is familiar and it is new, and it is everything. “I’ve always loved your stomach,” Jungkook says. Taehyung laughs as he bites the softness of it before kissing his way further down.

With his thumb resting atop the button of his pants, he looks up at him. “Will you let me?” he asks.

Taehyung reaches down and rests his hand on his cheek. “I said before that I have been yours from the first moment I saw you. You may do whatever you wish with me, my love.”

Jungkook turns his head and kisses his wrist. Taehyung could get lost in his eyes. He does not know how something so beautiful could look at him in the way he does. Jungkook unbuttons and unzips his pants, all while never looking away. Taehyung lifts his hips to allow him to take them off, and his underwear goes with it. It leaves him naked in front of Jungkook, again and for the first time.

As he has always done, Jungkook allows himself to stare at him. Looking from his soft stomach up to his eyes, then his soft thighs and his chest. His hands resting on the bed, the vulnerability in Taehyung’s eyes, the way he is always biting his lip in anticipation and slight fear, because it scares him to be looked at so closely, with so much admiration. Then he finally looks at his cock, resting against his hip bone.

Jungkook reaches for it, holding it as if it is his to touch. His fingers wrap around it, and it makes Taehyung’s eyes close as he relaxes into the bed. Jungkook’s hand slowly slides up and down the hard length, making it grow further in response to his kind touch. Taehyung realizes that he has not felt this since the last time Jungkook did it, so, so long ago. He has not been touched in so long, because he would not be touched again if it weren’t by Jungkook’s hands.

Or Jungkook’s mouth, that now gently sucks on the head of his cock. God, Jungkook is so gentle and careful with him that it may bring more tears to Taehyung’s eyes if he even has any left. “Jungkook,” he sighs, melting into the bed. He remembers all the times they have been just like this, in their little bed above the stable, how Jungkook took him apart as slowly as he does now, as if they had all the time in the world. They didn’t then, but they do now.

Jungkook slowly bobs his head, his tongue flat against the underside of his cock, making him feel the soft, wet drag of it up and down the shaft. Taehyung’s hand rests on the back of Jungkook’s head, not pushing or pulling or wanting to take control, because he will always take whatever Jungkook will give him without asking for more. It is an honor to be touched by him, to even be looked at, and anything he does with him will be taken as a gift. Jungkook has always made him feel things he never knew he could feel, and it is no different now. He takes him all the way down his throat, until his cock is buried inside of his mouth. He swallows around it, pulling a moan out of Taehyung. Taehyung has not heard himself moan in so long; it sounds strange to his ears.

Jungkook looks up and meets his eye, holding his gaze as he sucks his cock. With just the head in his mouth, he swirls his tongue around, licking away his precum before setting his cock back down to rest on his stomach again. Jungkook has always done this too – something that drives him mad in the best of ways. The way he sucks his cock as if he wants to taste, as if he wants Taehyung to feel the pleasure of it without fully committing to it. These little moments where he makes him feel good without lingering too long, almost a form of teasing, but mostly little acts of love because there are so many ways he wants him to feel good.

Taehyung feels lucky that they cannot breathe, because he isn’t sure he would know how to do so with the way Jungkook is looking at him, with the way he is touching him like he’s special, with the way he whispers, “I love you.” Taehyung almost breaks down crying again when he says, “I’ve loved you for so long.”

He has, and Taehyung has, because this love did not disappear when Jungkook’s life slipped away from him. It stayed where it was until it was able to blossom once more when he found his love after so many years, asleep on a park bench as if he was there just for that reason. “I love you,” Taehyung says, the words barely making a sound because any louder would make them come out as a sob.

Jungkook kisses the spot where his leg meets his torso, pressing kisses up and down the entire space because he remembers how sensitive Taehyung is there, almost enough to make his leg twitch. Taehyung knows he remembers because he can feel the smile to the kisses. Taehyung thinks that even if they had not yet remembered who they are, Jungkook would still know the exact way to touch Taehyung in the way he needs, because he has been loving him in the way he needs this entire time.

Taehyung's breathing turns shaky when Jungkook slowly begins to bend his legs for him. He bites his lip as he forces his face to remain smoothed out, for his eyebrows to remain relaxed and his heart to stop racing in embarrassment. Jungkook pushes his leg back, exposing him. Taehyung holds them back for him, his stomach a mess from nerves. This isn’t the first time he has been in this position, but it is his first time as a sire exposed so intimately for his fledgling to take. It has always made him feel so–so vulnerable and embarrassed and exposed, and it is true even more because of the dynamic he and Jungkook have shaped into.

“You’re so beautiful, Tae,” Jungkook says. He takes his time to admire every part of him, doing so so openly and not trying to hide the way he looks at his hole, or his balls, or his cock, or the nervousness surely shining in his eyes. “So beautiful. I’ve wanted you like this for so long. Just like this. Lying there, looking like an angel, just waiting for me. God, you’re so perfect, sire.”

Taehyung cannot speak. It’s–it’s too much. This is his love, his fledgling, his whole entire world looking at him with so much love and desire. He cannot say a word, but he knows that Jungkook is able to feel it. Their bond thrumming with warmth, their hearts beating in sync.

Jungkook lies down on his stomach, and he rests his hands on Taehyung’s asscheeks. He spreads them apart more, making Taehyung whimper from the vulnerability it takes to lay here like this. There is–there is so much of the same in giving, the sense of, in some ways, putting on a performance, so much expectation in making the other feel good, but it has never compared to what it has always taken Taehyung to just lie here and accept it.

He hears Jungkook say, “So pretty,” to himself before he finally leans in. Taehyung’s stomach, his heart, he does not know what and he cannot say what it does when Jungkook doesn’t lick his hole, but kisses him there. His eyes lock with Taehyung’s when he presses his lips there again. Then Jungkook’s eyes flutter closed as he kisses him there again, as if he is losing himself in the action. He presses his lips there even longer, kissing his most intimate spot. Taehyung feels his tongue in the next kiss, and the one after that as if he is making out with his hole. Taehyung feels as though he is dying, that this cannot be real – being kissed somewhere so private, and how good it feels. Even more when Jungkook starts to push his tongue inside, stretching him apart after so long that it may as well be his first time again. And it is, but it is not.

“J-Jungkook, Jungkook, please,” he begs. He recognizes the sound of his begging, because he is no stranger to it. But it is unlike all of the other times he has begged before, at least in the past century, because this is the way he begs to Jungkook. This desperation does not hold despair, but a whine, a plead to keep making him feel this way. To lick him deeper, to kiss him there again. And Jungkook does when he asks him, when he begs, he pushes his tongue inside, he licks over his hole, he kisses him there, even drags his fangs teasingly in a way that makes Taehyung cry out.

Taehyung wants him to keep eating him out because it feels so good, but he needs to be closer now or he fears he will float away. Jungkook somehow understands, because suddenly he is hovering over him, lying down on top of him so he can feel him everywhere, kissing him on the lips. “I love you.” It comes out as a sob, because the tears have returned to him. He doesn’t know how they will continue, because he cannot let go of him. He cannot let him go far, he cannot lose him again. He cannot ever lose Jungkook; he is his life, his love, he cannot go.

“I love you, Tae, it’s okay,” Jungkook says. Taehyung doesn’t know how he can be so calm. He knows that Jungkook did not have to live without him like he did, but Jungkook found out that he lived a life before this one, that they have known each other for longer than they thought.

But Jungkook has always been this way. Every time Taehyung has gotten overwhelmed – whether it was a century ago when he’d kiss him, or just a week ago when he’d drink his blood. Jungkook has always been the one to soothe him, the one to stay calm to care for him when he gets overwhelmed. Taehyung is the sire, but he is Jungkook’s baby.

“My baby, I’ve got you,” Jungkook whispers. “It’s okay, I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

Taehyung does not recall Jungkook grabbing lube (nor does he know where it even came from) or opening the bottle, or pouring it onto his fingers either. All he knows is that he feels his slick fingers circling his entrance as Jungkook stays on top of him.

“Jungkook–I–I–”

“I know,” Jungkook softly shushes him. “I know, baby. I’m here.”

He is, he is, he’s right here, and Taehyung can feel him. The boy he loved so dearly who died in his arms, he is pressing soft kisses against the side of his face as his finger slides into him. The apprehension and embarrassment leave Taehyung so easily when Jungkook slides his finger inside. Taehyung has missed this, this feeling, the feeling of something inside of him, whether it is his love’s fingers or his cock. He has forgotten how good it feels, how relaxing it is to be filled, and how it turns into the most intense pleasure when that one spot is touched. He had forgotten how it feels to be touched.

“Just like that, baby,” Jungkook hums. “Everything's okay. We’re together, and I’ll make us feel so good. My pretty, pretty Tae. My baby. I love you, sire.”

“Love you,” Taehyung says dreamily. His eyes remain closed as soft sighs come from his lips – his panic and desperation from earlier moving to the background as Jungkook slides another finger into him. It’s so good. He has not been touched in so, so long, and he never thought he would be touched this way again. Handled with love and care, touched so selflessly, touched like he knows all of the ways Taehyung will unravel and allow himself to feel. And he does. He does know, because he has done it time and time again. And even if he hadn’t, however Jungkook touches him would be the way he wants to be touched.

With Taehyung more relaxed, Jungkook is able to move back a few inches to look at him and finger him more comfortably. “Just like that, baby. See? Everything’s okay. You’re being so good for me.”

Taehyung moans the most whimpery sound he’s ever heard. Please take care of me, he wants to say. Please treat me softly. It was only him for so, so long. He wants to be cared for, he wants to be loved, he wants to be Jungkook’s and not have to think about anything.

He takes Jungkook’s free hand, and without thinking much about it, he brings it to his lips and sucks on two of his fingers. “Fuck, Tae,” Jungkook says, his voice more solid than it’s been for a while. Jungkook bends his fingers, both inside of his hole and inside of his mouth. Taehyung moans as Jungkook pushes down on his tongue and presses down on his prostate. His back arches off the mattress as his mouth falls open. Jungkook keeps petting his tongue as his fingers pet his prostate too. Then a third finger joins inside of him, and Taehyung gives up on thinking. He gives himself over to Jungkook. He knows he is safe, he knows his fledgling will care for him.

Jungkook spreads his three fingers and leans down to kiss his neck. The place he has bitten so many times, now he just kisses it softly. Taehyung opens his eyes when Jungkook leans back, having to fight to keep them open because Jungkook begins pressing down on his prostate again, massaging it in slow circles. It is not unlike anything he’s ever felt, but it is so, so good that it’s hard to believe he could have felt it before and let it end.

He wants to see his love though, so he does not let his eyes fall closed. It makes him realize that Jungkook is still partially clothed. He took off his pants at some point, and there is a big bulge in his boxer briefs as his hard cock begs to be freed. Taehyung licks his lips to be sure he is not drooling, receiving a laugh from Jungkook that he ignores. The bulge is so big, and he will feel it spread him apart as Jungkook takes him so sweetly.

“Can I have it?” Taehyung asks, looking up at him, surely with wide, teary eyes.

“Fuck, sire,” Jungkook says. He leans down and kisses between his eyebrows. “Of course, baby. Anything for my baby.”

Jungkook slowly slides his fingers out, and Taehyung’s hole tightens around nothing. The emptiness could threaten to send Taehyung into a panic again, but he focuses all of his attention on Jungkook. His defined abs, a v-line that disappears beneath the hem of his underwear. Taehyung watches him slowly drag them down, revealing sparse hair before the base of his cock, then lower and lower until it is all freed. His cock hangs heavy out in front of him, his balls hanging heavy beneath him. It glistens with precum that has smeared across the head and down the shaft. Taehyung can smell his arousal, and he knows that it has turned his eyes red because of the way Jungkook looks at him. It is so at odds with the situation that it almost makes Taehyung laugh – the way he looks like a deer in the headlights and not his confident, vampiric lover.

Jungkook crawls back to him across the bed, his cock swinging with the movement. Taehyung’s legs have stayed spread since Jungkook did it himself, and Jungkook fits himself right between them. He leans over him. He rests his hand on his cheek, their eyes locked together. “My Tae,” he says quietly, eyes now roaming all over his face. Seeing him again. Seeing him as he was before, and seeing him for who he is now. “So beautiful. You’re so beautiful, sire, did you know that?” Taehyung does not know how to answer, or if he even is able to speak at all. Jungkook chuckles like he knows. “It’s… god, it’s you. It’s you, Tae. And you’re–you’re my sire now.” Taehyung can only nod. He tries to keep his tears away, because if they appear again, they will not cease. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Taehyung whispers. He watches Jungkook take himself into his hand. He moans as if he were the one being touched as he watches Jungkook stroke himself. He watches him slowly move his grip up and down his cock, spreading the precum, spreading the scent of his arousal. He knows Jungkook is probably smirking at him as his sire moans watching him, but Taehyung does not care, because the way it makes his own cock throb makes his toes curl.

Jungkook finally presses the head of his cock against his hole. Taehyung can feel himself pressing down, then finally spreading apart to let Jungkook inside. He lets out a noise he has not heard himself make before, or at least not for a long, long time. He melts down into the mattress as everything in him lets go. His body relaxes, his thoughts ebb away. He is just here with his Jungkook as his love slowly slides into him. Taehyung feels every single slow inch, pressing deeper and deeper while stretching him so wide. It feels like ages before Jungkook’s hips rest against him, and he is fully inside.

Jungkook collapses down onto him. He catches himself on his forearms before he can fully fall. Their foreheads rest together as he breathes shakily against his lips. “Tae,” he says, his voice cracking. “My Tae.”

And if Jungkook is going to unravel, then Taehyung is too. If Jungkook will not ground them, Taehyung will not try for them. So he lets himself cry, and he lets himself feel it all. This reunion, this first moment together. His love that he lost, his love who stayed inside of him even when he was gone, his love who is inside of him again in more ways than one. Their bond is too–too there to even be able to focus on it without possibly suffocating. Jungkook buries his face in his neck and sobs. Taehyung holds him tight and close, holds his little fledgling, lets him cry in his sire’s arms. This boy that he loves so, so dearly.

Taehyung’s own sobs hiccup when Jungkook pulls his hips back and forcefully pushes his cock inside, the sound of their skin slapping together ringing around the room. He does it again, then again and again and again, ramming inside of him with all of the strength of a vampire. Still, as he fucks him hard and deep, he does it slowly. Everything is slow, everything takes its time, because they have all of the time they could ever want now.

But right now they need to feel each other, and they both know this, and Jungkook fucks him down into the mattress. Slow slides out, making Taehyung feel every inch of him until his hole tightens around the tip, then sliding in with enough force that it makes the bed frame creak. “J-Jungkook, darling,” Taehyung moans, cries, whimpers, sobs. He holds onto Jungkook tight, nails dragging down his back and leaving marks, trying to find purchase on his sweaty skin. Taehyung thinks there will be bruises on the backs of his thighs from the way Jungkook is fucking him, so hard that it would hurt anyone but him, he thinks.

“Sire,” Jungkook chokes out. He comes out of hiding from his neck just to crash their lips together as he fucks into him, harder than he ever has before, more desperately than he ever has before. Taehyung thinks there will probably be a crater in the shape of his body permanently in the mattress as he just takes the brutal thrusts from his fledgling. Jungkook’s tongue explores his mouth, teeth biting his lip, cheeks growing wet from their tears. “Tae, I love you, I love you.”

“I–”

“I love you, Tae,” Jungkook moans. He starts to fuck him faster, barely enough for their colliding skin to make a sound before he’s pulling out and slamming back in. Taehyung fears he will lose his voice from the way he cries for him, the way he moans for him. His prostate is abused, but feels as loving as a caress. Taehyung is fucked with abandon, but with the softest of love. “Feel so good, baby. My perfect Tae. I love you, sire. I love you. My good boy, such a good boy. Just – fuck – just laying here like such a good little angel, letting me fuck you, being so good. I love you.”

“I l-love you, Jungkook,” Taehyung cries out. His back attempts to arch off the bed with the way his orgasm is nearing him, but Jungkook is so heavy on top of him that he has nowhere to go, just has to lay here as he’s fucked so deeply. His fingers tangle in Jungkook’s sweaty hair and tugs it back, then guides him to his lips. They only kiss for a brief moment before they pant against each other’s mouth, breaths hot, skin damp and glistening. “M-My little fledgling. Sire loves you so much. F-For–for so long, my darling. For so long. Please, sweetheart, please, I am s-so close.” Jungkook positions his hips to make sure every thrust inside is against his prostate, making Taehyung choke on anything he was going to say as his toes curl, feeling the sensation all through his body as his orgasm inches closer.

“You look so pretty when you come,” Jungkook says. “I–I remember. I don’t know how I could forget. How beautiful you look when you come, when you let go. Show me, Tae, please, sire, it’s–it’s been so long.”

Taehyung did not even need time; he only needed permission. With a cry of Jungkook’s name, he comes. He feels his nails draw blood on Jungkook’s back as a moan tears out of his chest, his orgasm rushing over him. He feels his cum paint his stomach and Jungkook’s too. It prolongs itself when Jungkook’s hand wraps around his aching cock, stroking it slowly as he fucks him faster, milking him for all that he has. “Jungkook, darling, Jungkook, Jungkook,” he moans, vision going black as he comes harder than he ever has before. Jungkook leans down to kiss him, and their lips fit together as perfectly as their bodies.

He feels it when Jungkook comes too. When his hole becomes flooded with his cum, so much that it starts to seep out of him, Jungkook’s cock covered in white when he pulls out as he continues fucking him through it. “I love you, my darling,” Taehyung whispers, knowing his little fledgling loves to hear how he is loved. “I adore you, Jungkook. I am–I am whole with you. I have been nothing without you, I w-was nothing before I found you, my little fledgling. Y-You are the best part of me, my love, and I was without you. Never again, never again. I love you, Jungkook-ah, my silly, sweet little fledgling. You make sire so happy, my love, so complete. I love you.” He makes an oof sound when Jungkook collapses down onto him, completely spent.

Taehyung’s arms and legs wrap around him, and he closes his eyes. He nuzzles into the crook of his neck, kisses the salty slope of his shoulder. He was whole and complete when he met Jungkook months ago, before he knew who he was. He had never felt so complete before with his silly, sweet little fledgling. And now he knows who that silly, sweet fledgling is.

Chapter Text

Taehyung and Jungkook have been awake for a while. The morning sun is in the room with them as they lie on their sides in bed, looking at each other with their hands held between them. Neither of them have spoken. They have just watched each other, eyes tracing features or locked together in a tender gaze. The time spent allowing their heads to rest did them well, Taehyung thinks, because he feels like it is possible that he will be able to talk about everything without becoming the mess that he did last night. He will probably get awfully close to it, but the little progress is still progress.

Neither of them have spoken yet though. They just allow themselves to exist together, knowing this strange, wonderful new story of theirs as it is woven into the strange, wonderful story they already had.

Taehyung is uncertain how to even begin talking about it all. So, since it is what is the reason for everything, he says, “I love you, Jungkook.”

A small curve to Jungkook’s lips, as soft as the quiet morning. “I love you, sire.”

Even though he can feel it within Jungkook, that he is not the only one, he is still so nervous that he is. That he is the only one experiencing this. Quietly and scared, he asks, “You remember me?”

Jungkook nods. “I remember you,” he says softly.

“I–I trust you, and I know that you would not lie to me, but I just–it is all so difficult to believe that I am nervous that perhaps we are not exactly experiencing the same thing. S-So, will you please tell me some things that you have remembered? I am not doubting you, I just–it’s all so…” he trails off, because he doesn’t know what could be at the end of the sentence.

Jungkook brings Taehyung’s hand to his lips to kiss it. He holds their hands against his heart that beats the same as Taehyung’s. That is too much to think about right now with all of these new things. “I had been watching you for a while,” Jungkook says. “I lived in the small apartment above the stable, and the window beside my bed overlooked the small town. Even though so many things around us had advanced so far, our little town was still years behind. It was simpler there, and it was nice.

“I had trouble sleeping a lot, so I used to just sit at the window and look out at the sky, because you could see all the stars. It was summer at the time, and I always loved summer nights in our town. Especially when you came along, and I spent so many of them with you.

“But before all of that, one night, I was looking out, and I saw a fast shadow run from the forest, across the town, and into the other side of the forest. And I was like, ‘What the fuck,’” Taehyung snorts, because he is not even sure if that language was used back then, “and I watched it happen again. And I started to see you more and more at night, since that’s the only time you–we–can be out. Some days you were more… lucid than others and seemed more like a wandering person, stumbling around at night. Other times you looked like a vampire, which is what I thought you were. And I just watched you, for weeks, I think.”

The familiarity in that… it almost chokes Taehyung. It is as if their stories were switched a century later.

“And I thought you were pretty.”

Taehyung snorts. “My reckless boy. You see a vampire and think of his beauty rather than the danger you are in.”

Jungkook shrugs cheekily like the easygoing boy he is. “I went outside one night, when you looked a little more normal, and you spotted me. You almost attacked, but I held my arms out and said, ‘Wait, wait, it’s okay,’ like you were an animal I was trying to fend off or something.”

“And I was.”

“And you were totally rabid, like that night was probably not the night to do that, but I did it anyway. And even though you were just a second away from killing me probably, you stopped and looked at me. And you still looked… not yourself, but your concentration was kind of going in and out. But it was going in, which was good. And then you furrowed your eyebrows at me and ran off.”

Taehyung wishes he had these memories. The memories of what is technically their first meeting. But Jungkook is correct; he was rabid, and he therefore cannot remember any of it until he was pulled out of that state. By this very reckless boy.

But he has heard this story before. And he knows that what he and Jungkook are feeling and experiencing are the same. He focuses on the memory before everything that it means can pull him under again.

“And then the next night, I went out again, and you were the same. And then the next night I went out again, and you were a little bit more yourself. And I kept going out, and you kept returning. It was cute, like you were curious. And I never spoke, because I didn’t want to scare you off.”

“Scare me,” Taehyung scoffs. “You really are a reckless little sweetheart, aren’t you? A human continually putting himself in the path of a vampire under no control.”

His scolding doesn’t affect Jungkook, as it rarely does. It is useless in retrospect, really, and, despite it having been a horrible idea, he is glad that Jungkook was daring and headstrong enough to go out that first night, and all the ones following. It is the reason they are here right now, in bed together a century later as Jungkook tells him a story.

“And then you started to become even more normal,” Jungkook continues. “But still, you’d come, and you’d just stand there, looking at me. Not moving or saying anything, just watching me. And when I felt like it would be okay, I said, ‘I’m Jungkook.’ You didn’t say anything, not until a week after I introduced myself. A-And–” Taehyung watches Jungkook’s eyes glisten when tears appear. They are happy tears he thinks, though, the kind when recalling a fond memory. “You said, ‘Hello, Jungkook.’ And you stuttered on the first word, and your voice sounded weird and unsure, like you hadn’t talked in a long time, or you were confused why you were talking. And that’s all you said. And I almost got fired from the stable because I was barely sleeping, or I was falling asleep on the job, because when I should have been sleeping, I was standing in the middle of the abandoned town for hours in the middle of the night. But it was all so worth it at the time, because eventually a time would come where we would sit in the middle of town, just talking to each other until the sun was going to rise.

“A-And–and–” Jungkook sniffles, a sob-like laugh as Taehyung wipes his tears as he recalls it all, and it is bringing about the same reaction from Taehyung – the incredulity, the strangeness of recalling it, the silliness of it all and how reckless his little love was. “One night before any of that happened, when you were going to leave, I asked if you wanted to come to where I lived. So you could get out of the sun. And then you just… didn’t leave. I wouldn’t have let you even if you tried.”

“How do you remember all of this?” Taehyung asks. “You died, Jungkook.” He almost chokes on the word, bitterness in his mouth from speaking something so horrible. “You haven’t been living this whole time, have you?”

“No, I-I mean–no. I–I’ve been living for as long as twenty-six years, when you found me and turned me. Twenty years ago I was six and a child, and nine years ago I was a teenager getting my license. I was just a human; I’ve just been here for twenty-six years.”

“Then–then why?” He does not understand. “What is it like for you to remember? Does it feel like you were given someone else’s memories?”

Taehyung is not sure what the thought of that feels like, but he does not think he would like it. But Jungkook shakes his head and says definitively, “No. They’re as real as the ones I have from ten years ago. It was me. It was us. The same me as I am now, the same us we are now. It wasn’t someone else, it’s not someone else’s memories. It was me, they’re my memories. I was there. Me, who I am right now–I was there. But it’s–god, I don’t know. I don’t know. What do you think is happening? How is this happening?”

It sounds so… dramatic to say, perhaps, or is taking liberties for how the world works – as if he is speaking for the way the universe works without having authority over it. And it is perhaps overly poetic to say, but at the risk of sounding so romantic, he says, “I… my darling, the way I loved you… when you were no longer there, the love was just my own to carry, and I could–I could not. It was too much for only myself, to not have you, my love, my darling, my sweetheart to give it to. It was too much to bear. And perhaps it is too poetic that it is turning it into a fable, but it is almost as if it was too much, and you had to come back to me. My love for you would not go away, for as long as I ever lived, it would still be there with me. It was all shrouded in darkness in my head, yes, but it is still a heaviness that I carried with me for so long, because it was there, but I did not know what it was. It would always be there, enough that it brought you back to me. Goodness, that sounds so absurd. But just–my love for you, it was as immortal as I am, and it brought you back to me, so you would be the same.”

Jungkook sniffles. “I’d really like it if that were true. That you love me that much.”

“Whether that is what happened or not, my love for you is enough to do much greater miracles than to bring you back to me.” He brushes a tear from Jungkook’s cheek. “My darling Jungkook-ah.”

Jungkook sniffles. He mutters, “I can’t believe you moved on from me and got with somebody else…”

A loud laugh startles from Taehyung, making Jungkook giggle too. “You silly boy. If anyone were able to make me love again, of course it was still you. If I had always remembered you, I would have never left. I would not have even left where we lived together, I would have stayed there forever, until our bed lost your scent and your blood no longer stained my hands or flowed within me. I would have never moved on if I had not forced myself to forget to escape the pain.”

“I’m sorry you had to live through that,” Jungkook says, his voice cracking as if he is the one who put him through it. Taehyung pets Jungkook’s hair, fluffy and sweet from their long time in bed together. His face puffy and sweet from all of the crying they have done. Taehyung is certain he looks the same, but could never be anywhere near as beautiful as his boy.

“Do not be sorry, my love. We have an eternity to make up for it. It will finally be as it was meant to be.”

– ☾ –

Taehyung does not know how he knew where the key was. He is certain that he had hidden it somewhere he could never hope to find so long ago, but something in him knew right where it was. It is rusted and heavy in his hand, and he wonders if the lock itself is too. He almost wishes it were, but it unlocks as easily as a sigh of relief. Taehyung pushes open the door with a resounding creak.

He does not ever recall being up here. He knows that he has to have been, because he is the one that locked the door from the outside. He would not do so if there were not something to lock away. For the many years that he walked past the door to the second floor, it was overlooked and forgotten about as if it were just part of the fixtures he passed every day.

Despite not being able to recall a time he was upstairs, he thinks he knows what he will find up here. He thinks he knows why the door has remained locked, why he – or anybody – has never ventured up the stairs.

Taehyung thinks that there used to be a grand stairwell leading up to the second floor. It would suit the manor more than this hidden set of stairs. He wonders if, when he made the manor his own, he had done his best to shut the entryway off, as if it could be forgotten about. He does not let himself pause to ready himself as he walks up the steps. He knows if he did, he would not continue.

The wood floor creaks beneath their feet when they reach the landing. Their steps leave footprints behind in the dust. It is a dust so thick that it causes Jungkook to very cutely sneeze. It kicks up more dust to float in the air, dancing through the sun’s rays that fall through the windows.

The upstairs of the manor is the size of the original manor itself, before it was expanded so often when its new residents were taken in. The upstairs was never expanded, so it does not hold the same vastness as the rest of the home. Still, there are quite a few rooms, different doors lining the hall. Even when Taehyung cannot recall ever being up here, somehow he knows exactly where to go. He walks to the very last door in the hall, on the left. He knows that it would be locked too, and that that key would not be on the manor’s key ring. He knew it was hidden instead, so it would not be found – either by him or whomever may venture up here.

Still, again, somehow he knows just where it is. In the loose floorboard beneath the last window on the right, thrown in before the wood plank was stomped back down, buried as definitively as a hidden body. And inevitably found again later like one too.

Taehyung’s hands tremble as he lines it up to the lock. He does not hesitate though; he just turns it with a mechanical click. The door opens with another creak, almost as if welcoming them in, because it is finally time for the room to be found.

Taehyung leans against the wall so he does not sink to his knees. Then he leans against Jungkook as he holds him in his arms. A broken sob makes its way out of him – but only one. Perhaps because he cannot do anything but look around, tears swimming in his eyes.

Stacks on top of forgotten tables. In rows on the floor, leaning against the wall. Some covered in sheets, some exposed to the years and years of sun that have softened its colors to the light haze of the memory itself in his head. Paintings upon paintings of Jungkook, of their life together. His love lying on their bed, so similar to the one hanging in the museum. Paintings of their home – a place so small and dusty, smelling of hay, and still so perfect. The place they used to picnic by the river, watching the stars reflected in the water rather than looking up to the sky. Even some paintings and drawings of Taehyung that Jungkook did. Drawings of Taehyung painting him, paintings of Jungkook drawing him. Their life together, all around them, captured so carefully. There must be hundreds of paintings and drawings, kept here and locked away like all of his memories of their life. Something in Taehyung – it breaks or it heals or does both at once when Jungkook says quietly, eyes locked on the paper that was once his, “It’s you… You were who I was drawing. In my sketchbook in my parents house. Not–not your face, but y-your hands and your neck and your body, b-because I could never see your face clearly in my head. But they were all you.”

Taking an uncertain step deeper into the room, Taehyung looks closer at the painting nearest to him. And Jungkook is right there to catch him when he finally almost falls to his knees again.

In the painting in front of him, and the ones on each side of it, and in every one he can see from here… Jungkook does not have his beauty mark. The one beneath his lip. Every detail of Jungkook was captured, so it was not an oversight. It was not there. It would never go unnoticed by him, but especially not when it has always enchanted him so.

Taehyung turns into Jungkook. A full sob finally breaks free, more and more following it.

“They say beauty marks appear where you have been kissed the most in your past life,” Taehyung says, kissing him once more. “Who has been able to kiss you as I do, hm?" He kisses him again, right where the beauty mark is beneath his lip.

It was him.

And when he peeks over Jungkook’s shoulder, at a drawing he sees of himself, he is without his own too.

“What about yours, huh?” Jungkook says, kissing the one on his lip, the tip of his nose, beneath his eye.

“I developed those later in life, so I am safe,” Taehyung says.

Jungkook huffs. “No one’s kissed me but you,” he says. “In any lives.”

Taehyung could not die, so they appeared like freckled skin in the sunlight.

Everything. From their heartbeats to their bond, even down to their beauty marks. Everything connects Taehyung to his love, and his fledgling to his sire. It is as if Jungkook is a part of him as much as he is himself, like he is so irreversibly tied to him that he became part of him, like their love was enough to bind them together, enough to transcend lifetimes.

“I love you, Tae,” Jungkook says. His voice is calm even as he cries, even as Taehyung sobs, because Jungkook has always been the one that grounds them both.

Taehyung sniffles. It is all so much. But he manages to say, “I love you, Jungkook.”

He lets himself cry until the tears dry out for now. He lets himself ache and rejoice and come back to the moment, and Jungkook lets him too, however long it takes. He finally steps out of Jungkook’s arms. He wipes his face, then he dries Jungkook’s tears too. He rests his hand on his cheek, then he softly kisses him.

“Tell me some more things you remember,” Taehyung says. Not because he doubts Jungkook, but because he wants to reminisce, marvel at the wonder of it all.

“Hmm…” Jungkook says. He walks to a gathering of canvases that are leaning against the wall, and he starts to finger through all of them. Taehyung begins shuffling through the stack on one of the tables, remembering so clearly each and every painting. He cannot believe he forgot it all, when it is all so clear. “This day.”

Taehyung turns, and he sees Jungkook holding a canvas in shades of blue. Jungkook lying naked on a blanket, beneath the moonlight, beside a lake near their home together. Somewhere they frequented quite often in the summer months. And in this particular one, Jungkook is unclothed, lying on his back and looking up at the stars.

“The night we went swimming in the lake,” Taehyung says. He laughs, remembering, “It was the first time we went in the water, and you were afraid and whining the whole time that it was full of leeches who wanted to stick to you. You screamed every time part of me touched you in the water, because you thought it was one.”

Taehyung can feel it as if it is all happening again. The grass on his bare feet as he walked to the lake. The smoothness of the water as he sank into it. The shades of blue that surrounded them, then his love that surrounded him as he clung to him and they kissed beneath the moonlight. The sounds of crickets and cicadas, and the gentle illumination of fireflies as they danced together in the surrounding forest. He remembers it all – the smell of the lake, the smell of Jungkook’s blood, the feeling of his skin as he kissed him so softly in worship.

Jungkook snorts, a wide smile on his face as he looks down at the painting, remembering it all too. “It was a very valid fear,” he insists.

“Perhaps, but you already had something that sucked your blood, almost every night. That very same night in particular too, both in the water and once we were done swimming.”

It is all coming together, taking its time as more is revealed and understood. The reason why every human smells the same, but something about Jungkook smelled different and wonderful. It is the same as the way his blood smells now, the reason it has always held him in its clutches, because he recognized it, because something in him recognized his love somewhere deep down. It was because it is the same blood he was allowed to drink so long ago, one whose taste and scent he became so enamored with that anybody else smelled almost rotting in comparison.

“And once I was done with that painting, we made love on that blanket.”

Jungkook snorts so loudly Taehyung is surprised he didn’t hurt his throat. “Made love,” he says. “You’re so old.”

Taehyung does not know if he can argue that Jungkook is old too, because he is not, really. He’s still this silly, modern twenty-six year old – just like he was back then as well.

“Well, it is what we did, and what we did last night as well.” He blushes at the thought of it, and he thinks Jungkook does as well. “I cannot help that I am a romantic gentleman.”

Jungkook laughs. He comes over to kiss his cheek. “You are,” he says. “And I love it about you.”

He returns to the paintings and continues looking through them, and Taehyung does the same. There is Jungkook cooking in their small kitchen, their home always smelling of herbs. Jungkook tending to the horses they lived above, brushing their fur or petting their heads. They lived meagerly, in a home that was too small, in a town not as developed as many during that time. Taehyung told Jungkook that he could help them, that he could get them money, but Jungkook refused the offer each time it was made. They did not need more than they had; they only needed each other.

“God, there are so many paintings of me. Of us,” Jungkook says. “You made so much art of our life.”

The room is cluttered with it all. Until that point, Taehyung had not painted since he was bitten, nearly a century prior. But when he met Jungkook, when he met him as himself and not a vampire who had lost control, his hands wanted to reach for a paintbrush at every turn. He wanted to capture as much of them as he could, as much of his kind, sweet, gentle boy as he could. He is so glad he did.

“Why didn’t you want to turn me?” Jungkook asks quietly. “It was something we argued about all the time. You wouldn’t do it. It took so long to convince you.”

Taehyung swallows. He should have bitten Jungkook the moment he asked. He should not have been hesitant. He should have allowed himself to be selfish and bound Jungkook to him forever, and the century would not have passed in the way it did. It is his fault that everything followed. It could have been prevented, he could have been saved, he could have been strong enough he would not have gotten harmed. He should have bitten him.

“Namjoon gave me journals,” he says. “When he was researching things about our bond. When he figured out what it was, who we were. He was trying to make me figure it out as well, I now see. He gave me journals he transcribed, the names in it removed, and without the writer spoken of. They were my journals, all of the pages that I wrote about you. I think that you should read them, so you can see for yourself what exactly was in my head. But I just–you were so wonderful and special, my love. You still are. I adored you so deeply, adored that light in you, the life in you. I did not want to take it from you. It felt selfish to end your life, for me to selfishly take it. The thought of doing that to you was just–it felt so selfish and wrong. I wish I had done it; I wish I had done it as soon as you asked.”

“Namjoon knew?” Jungkook asks.

“I believe so,” Taehyung says. “I think he has known for a while, but he did not want to tell us. He began figuring it out when I spoke of the bond, because it is not something that happens between sires and fledglings. It is not something that happens at all.”

They spend hours there, going through all of the paintings, laughing and crying and fondly remembering the moments painted on each and every canvas. It is so strange. Taehyung is not sure he will ever be able to fully comprehend it all, if it could ever truly set in.

“Do you have memories of previous lives?” Taehyung asks nervously. “After you died and before I found you again, there was over a century until you were born again to reach the age you are now. Were you there for all of those years?”

Jungkook shakes his head. “I don’t remember anything if I was, so I don’t think so. I just remember us, and then my life up until you found me a few months ago.”

Taehyung is not sure how he would feel if Jungkook had lived other lives besides the ones Taehyung has been a part of. If Jungkook has known other people, held different memories. Perhaps it is selfish of him, but he is going to be selfish regarding Jungkook now. He is going to let his love be as big as it wants to be, as greedy as it wants to be, he is going to take as much of Jungkook as he can, claim him and keep him and not let him go.

It is not until the sun has set that they finally leave the room full of paintings, a small museum in itself. Their hands are joined together as they walk down the dusty hallway back to the stairs. “You just don’t use the upstairs here?”

Taehyung shakes his head. “Never, not once since this place became mine. I did not know why, but I just knew not to come up here. I am not even sure how the paintings came to be here. It is as if anything having to do with you was blocked out in my head.”

“I…” Jungkook says. His grip on Taehyung’s hand tightens. “I don’t know what I’d do if you died. If something happened and I was alone without you. I can’t–god, I can’t even think about it. So I can’t believe that you–fuck, I’m so sorry, Tae.”

Taehyung laughs as he tries to hold himself from tearing up again. “You are apologizing for being murdered?” Jungkook nods very earnestly. Taehyung snorts. “That is not something to apologize for, my darling. If–i-if anything, I should be the one to apologize. I should have been there to protect you. I should have turned you sooner. It is my fault that–”

He is in Jungkook’s arms, and he is being held tight as he cries. Jungkook’s hand is on the back of his head, and he is softly shushing him. “Don’t say that,” he says. “It’s not your fault. It wasn’t your fault at all. It was the fucking guy who stabbed me’s fault, and just his.”

Taehyung isn’t sure he will be able to believe that, that it wasn’t his fault when he could have made it so he would continue to live. But he has a long, long time to think it over, and maybe one day the guilt and regret will leave him.

They head down the stairs, and Taehyung hesitates. He does not lock the door.

They walk back to their bedroom, and Taehyung takes the pages of journals – his journals – from the nightstand. He gets on the bed and sits with his back against the headboard, and Jungkook seats himself right between his legs. He leans back against his chest, and Taehyung’s arms wrap around him. He buries his face in his neck, and he softly kisses him there. “My sweet boy,” he whispers, then he kisses him again. He bites him, his fangs sinking into his neck with enough venom to not cause him even a hint of pain. Jungkook’s head falls to the side with a happy sigh. Taehyung does not take much, not even doing so to feed himself, just wanting a taste. He slides his fangs out and licks the wounds closed, then he kisses him there and rests his chin on his shoulder.

“These are my journals,” he says when Jungkook takes them. “I did not know that when I was reading them, but I did think while reading them that something felt familiar. I thought that it was because I related to how the writer wrote of the one they loved. It is because it is how I have always thought of you.”

They start at the very beginning. Taehyung reads them over Jungkook’s shoulder with the new knowledge that he is reading his own words, reading of their own love. Much of the time is spent with Jungkook giggling and blushing as he reads about how truly loved he was. How truly loved he is, because Taehyung continually reminds him that he loves him just the same, that he loves him even more.

Taehyung continues to occasionally bite Jungkook, taking a drink from him here and there as Jungkook does the same, snacking on one another. Silent tears slide down their cheeks when they reach the end of the journals hours later, when Jungkook was no longer with him, and Taehyung could write no further.

“Our time was cut short,” Taehyung whispers, “but now there is no end to it. There will not be you or me, there will just be us.”

Jungkook rests his head back against Taehyung’s shoulder as his tears dry. He nods. He knows it is hard to believe for both of them, but they have quite a long time – forever, really – to try to convince each other if the passage of time does not do so first.

“Would you…” Jungkook starts. “If you didn’t know this was me and we were us, and I was just Jungkook who you met a few months ago, would you have loved me the same?”

“Are you kidding?” Taehyung says. It almost makes him ache that he could question that. “Of course, my love. Of course. I loved you wholeheartedly before I knew this about us. My darling, I have loved you so, so much, and all of the love that I have to give was yours. This does not change anything, Jungkook. It just gives us some memories. I have loved you with everything I have this whole time. You are so special, my darling. Silly and sweet and so, so beautiful. So worthy of every good thing. Of course I would have loved you the same, because I did. Please do not doubt that.”

“Just wanted to make sure…”

“I have been devoted to you from the first moment I saw you. Now I just know that I have loved you for so much longer than I thought I did.”

“We had sex last night.”

A loud, surprised laugh startles out of Taehyung. “We did,” he says.

“Did you like it?” Jungkook asks.

“Very much, my darling,” Taehyung says. “Very, very much. Did you?”

Jungkook nods. “Yeah…”

“Back then,” Taehyung starts, then says, “Goodness, it is so strange to figure out how we are to talk about things such as this. Because we have made love,” a snort from Jungkook because of his wording, which is correctly worded, “before, but it was also our first time. It is such a strange thing. Anyway, when we made love again–”

“Tae, please stop saying ‘made love,’” Jungkook laughs.

“It is what we were doing!”

“You sound so cheesy and formal.”

“Well, you will have to get used to it. We made love. And it was different from the many, many other times we did.” And there were many, many times. “Because this time, I am your sire.”

Jungkook hums and nods. Then once the silence stretches on, “And…?”

“And, well, I am your sire, and I was the one receiving it.”

Again, just as confused, “And…?”

“And so I–there’s–you know that we are–I am your sire, and you are my fledgling.”

“Are you saying that because you’re my sire, you were supposed to be the one who topped?” Taehyung nods. He whines when Jungkook leans off of him and moves away. It is okay though, because he turns in his spot between his legs, and Taehyung can see his lovely, lovely face again. “Did you not want to bottom?”

“W-Well, n-no, I did want to be the one who receives.”

“Okay, then what’s the problem?”

“I am your sire, darling.”

“Yes, and you wanted to bottom.”

Taehyung sighs. “I am supposed to be the one taking care of you, my love. I am the one who was supposed to be doing the work.”

“Okay, well first of all, don’t talk about us making love as work.” Taehyung laughs. It does sound a bit silly. “I–there’s so much wrong with that that I don’t even know where to start.”

“Oh,” Taehyung says. “W-Well, I apologize if I said something controversial…”

“When’s the last time you had sex?”

“Well, whenever the last time we did was.”

“Before last night though.”

“Yes,” Taehyung nods.

Jungkook furrows his eyebrows. “You mean…”

“There has never been anyone but you, my darling.” Jungkook blinks at him. “Did you think I would have gone out and found others after my love died in my arms? Part of me died with you, Jungkook. There has been no one but you. There never will be.”

Jungkook clears his throat and looks away to compose himself so they can continue. “W-Well, it’s maybe a little different from back then, even though we both topped and bottomed. But just because one of us is the one with ‘power,’ like you being my sire, or you being older than me, that means nothing, Tae. That doesn’t decide how we have sex, or even how we interact with each other outside of it. You’re my baby, Tae. You know that. And you’re my sire too. And you’re you. My Taehyung. And so we can do whatever we want, because we’re just two people who love each other. And I really loved topping you, and, if you would ever like to top too, I would love to bottom for you as well. And when either of us are doing either of those things, we can both do whatever we want within those roles. We can switch and take turns and we can do whatever we want. I don’t care that you’re my sire; I’m going to take care of you. Because you’re my sire. So you just have to accept that.”

Taehyung laughs, a little ashamed. “I accept that. I apologize that you must teach me sexual education.”

Jungkook snorts. “This is definitely not something they teach in sex ed.”

“I just–my darling.” He rests his hand on Jungkook’s cheek. Brushes his thumb back and forth beneath his eye. “I love you more than words can say. I want you to have a good life. A good life with me. I want our life together to be perfect for you. I want to be good for you. I want to make things good for you.”

“You’re here, Tae,” Jungkook says, his hand resting on top of Taehyung’s to nuzzle into his palm. “So it’s good. All I need is you. That’s all. That’s the only thing, and everything else will be good, because I have you.”

Taehyung supposes that that could be true, because it is what Taehyung would say too, and he would mean every word. So perhaps it can be true for Jungkook as well.

Perhaps they can just love each other. Perhaps it can be that simple.

Perhaps Jungkook can read his mind and it is another part of him that belongs to Jungkook, because he says, “It’s that easy, sire. It’s that simple.”

Taehyung nods. It is that easy. It is that simple. He will just love Jungkook, and Jungkook will love him, and it will always be enough. That is all that Taehyung needs.

Chapter Text

He and Jungkook have been immensely indulgent in their laziness these past few days. Taehyung thinks they deserve it after finding out such a big thing about their life together; if he wants to hold or be held in bed with his love, then he will do so for as long as he pleases.

They are lying on their sides, facing each other as they talk, as they have been doing for quite a long time. The afternoon sun lights their bedroom, and Taehyung thinks about how it is the very same sun that did the same all those years ago. He thinks it perhaps shines a little bit softer now, a little more golden just like what lights his old memories.

“I think I would like to paint again,” Taehyung says.

“That’s why you stopped,” Jungkook says. “Because of me.”

“Jungkook, my love, you must stop speaking about you dying as if you are to blame for any of it,” he chuckles. “My silly fledgling. But yes, I stopped because of your death. There was nothing worth painting anymore. You were my muse, and you were there no longer. And I–I think I would like to try. I miss it.”

“Then you should paint,” Jungkook says. Jungkook takes a gentle hold of his chin and leans in to kiss him, just once. Taehyung loves these kisses, when Jungkook kisses him a single time, randomly, just because he wants to kiss him.

“I’m nervous…” Taehyung says.

“Why?” Jungkook asks. His hand rests on his shoulder, then slowly runs up and down his arm a few times before it settles on the side of his neck. His little fledgling is always clingy with his sire, but he’s especially touchy today. Taehyung enjoys it very much.

“What if I’m not good at it anymore? And I’m… I am almost scared to reconnect with myself. With who I was back then. I am afraid of what memories might come up. All of this is already so much, and painting was such a big part of who I was. I am nervous that I will re-experience who I was, who I became when you were no longer with me.”

“Do you feel like you’re a different person from who you were back then?”

Taehyung nods. “I love you just the same, I love you even more, but I… I am afraid that part of me will always be broken because of what happened. I am afraid that that darkness and heaviness I carried with me for so long will never go away. I am afraid that it all changed me too much–changed me in bad ways. And do not apologize,” he chuckles, because he could tell Jungkook opened his mouth to do so. “I just–nothing had ever been so… I do not even have the word for it. Agonizing. Torturous. Unbearable. I think there was too much of it to not have been changed forever, even though you are right here in front of me. Even though I have you back, and I love you even more now, even though we are tied together forever. It’s just–I feel like I changed for the worse, and I cannot get the bad parts to go away.”

“Tae,” Jungkook says softly. “Other than you murdering a bunch of people–” Taehyung snorts quite loudly, forehead resting against Jungkook’s as he laughs. Jungkook can always be trusted to lighten the mood. “Other than that, I don’t think there are any bad parts to you.”

“My love, that on its own is enough to make me bad as a whole – not simply just a bad part that is able to be overlooked.”

Jungkook sighs. “I just–I think you see yourself as someone you’re not. Tae, a bad person wouldn’t be able to love me like you do.”

Oh. Well. That is a rather good point.

A small, smirking smile from Jungkook, because he knows he got through to him. “A bad person wouldn’t be able to be as kind as you are with me, as selfless, as genuine. The way you love me and treat me, and the way you treated me before you even knew you loved me, proves that there is good in you.”

“Perhaps there is some truth to that,” Taehyung mutters, receiving a chuckle from Jungkook.

“I was there the last time you painted for the first time again, you know,” Jungkook says. “You painted when you were a human, and then you stopped when you were turned. You came out of your bloodlust with me, and you started to paint again. I was there.”

Oh. That is true.

“And I remember how happy it made you,” Jungkook continues. “You were reconnecting with another version of yourself then too.”

Taehyung remembers it, all of it being painted in his head.

They were lying in Jungkook’s tiny bed together, facing each other on their sides and talking just like this. They had been arguing (not in a serious way, as they rarely ever did) about staying in tonight. Jungkook always felt guilty when they did not go outside at night, knowing it was Taehyung’s only chance to be outside. It had always taken lots and lots of convincing for Jungkook to believe that most nights, all Taehyung wanted to do was lie in bed with Jungkook and talk to him, or hold him, or massage his aching back after spending the whole day working. Taehyung did not need to go outside, or go out and experience things. If Jungkook wanted to, he would, but if given the sole choice, they would always be doing what they were that night.

(“But Tae, you could be anywhere right now, doing anything. You’re in this poor little town where we don’t even have actual roads yet like the city does.”

“Yes, and I would go anywhere and do anything that you would like to do. But you would like to stay here, because it is your home. And you are here, so it is my home too.”)

Jungkook was asking him about his life as a human, spoken in quiet words, because he always felt like he should whisper when the town slept. Taehyung told him about his family – what little he could remember back then, since he had lost so much time lost to himself, until Jungkook was somehow able to bring him into the person he was with him. He told him about where he lived at different stages of his forty-two years of life. And he finally told him about his former profession as a painter.

And back then, he spoke the same words as he does now. “I am afraid that I will not be good at it anymore.” And, “I am afraid to remember who I was before I was turned.” He was so full of fear for so many different things, not knowing that what he did not even realize he feared most was going to happen. He did not even think to fear Jungkook no longer being there anymore, because it felt as certain as the sky being blue and the grass being green.

But Jungkook encouraged him. Through his kind, sweet words, and through his actions too.

On one night in particular, Jungkook had told him he would have to work late. Taehyung thought that he would maybe like to take a walk, since his love would not be home. He could not join Jungkook down in the stable, because the horses there feared him, and he did not want to sit home and wait when he could spend some time outside.

So he walked through their deserted little village, then outside of it. He looked at where the moon was in the star-filled sky, and when it moved to the other side of the dirt road he was walking on, he would turn back and return to his love.

Out of all of the places he’d ever lived, he thought that he enjoyed this one the most. He liked the quietness of it. The simplicity. It was nothing compared to other towns that had slightly more money, and especially nothing like the city. Everyone lived within their modest means, and it was a nice place to settle down. Safe too, because, unbeknownst to them all, there was a monster living in their midst that protected them from outside harm before anything could start – whether it be nomads wandering through with ill intentions, or townspeople turning on one another.

Perhaps it was just Jungkook who made him love it though. The love of his entire life – his many, many years of life – was here. It could make any place look beautiful.

When the moon had moved far in the sky, Taehyung quickly made his way back into the village, to the stable at the other edge of it. The lights were off downstairs, with warm light shining through the cracks in the wood shutters closed over the window upstairs. From out here, Taehyung could hear Jungkook inside. The creak of the old floors beneath his feet, his absentminded humming that he did whenever he focused on a task.

Taehyung headed up the old stairs to their apartment above the stable, each creaky footstep welcoming him back. “I’m home, my dar–” he started, then he froze.

Jungkook stood in the middle of their apartment, still in his work clothes. He looked nervous, but he looked hopeful too. (And beautiful, always beautiful). Beside him was a painting easel. Taehyung knew that they did not have the money nor the means to go to the city and buy one. When focusing his vision, he could see the little imperfections in it. A small knick in the wood, as if Jungkook had started to cut the plank that makes one side of the frame, but realized that he was meant to cut a few more inches over. The way the wood grain in one of the bottom dowels looked rather rough, like he could not smooth it out fully in some places. The way it was leaning to the right just slightly – almost imperceptible. All signs that Jungkook had been painstakingly building it for him down in the stable as a secret kept from him.

On the table beside it, there were paintbrushes fanned out. Different lengths and sizes, some with thicker bristles for wide strokes, others smaller for details. When Taehyung finally stepped closer, he saw the character in them too. How hard Jungkook had clearly tried to whittle the wood in just the way he wanted, so it would be smooth and feel nice in his hand. Taehyung recognized the different colors of the bristles from brush to brush, knowing them to be the colors of the horses’ manes downstairs.

Beside the brushes, there were little jars of paint. Not very many colors – just the simple ones he would need to make an infinite amount of shades of his own.

“Every time the postman came to town to drop off everyone’s mail,” Jungkook finally spoke, “I would give him any money I was able to tuck away. He started to bring me paint and canvases from the city on his weekly route.”

Taehyung remembered thinking that no matter what he did – whether he had even been a monster or not – he could never be deserving of being loved so wholly. So kindly. He would never deserve this gentle boy.

“I’m here, Tae,” that gentle boy now says softly. “I’m right here. You don’t have to force yourself, but if you start to paint, and you start to feel bad because you remember everything from before, I’ll be right here to make it better, baby. I’ll be right here to hold you and remind you that I’m here, and that I’m in love with you. I love you so much that it brought me back to you. I’ll be here if you get scared. Right here.”

“Stay right here now, okay?” Taehyung tells Jungkook as he gets out of bed. He chuckles because he can see that Jungkook is holding back a whine and nods obediently instead.

Taehyung walks down the hallway. The manor is so quiet when it is just the two of them. It is not something he is used to. And even though he loves his friends so dearly, it is nice. It’s nice the way it feels like this is his and Jungkook’s home. It is where they are spending their life together.

He heads up the dusty stairs to the second floor, and for some reason, he knows to walk to the very end of the hall, and open the door on the right. He uses everything in him to hold himself back from crying until he can do so in the arms of his love.

He walks back downstairs and returns to their bedroom. He watches the tears in Jungkook’s eyes appear as he sets everything up. He unfolds the easel with a special kind of creak of the wood that he has not heard in so, so long. He sets the well-loved brushes on the nightstand, along with the jars of paint that had long since run out, just to be refilled with more. On the shelf of the easel, he sets a hand-stretched canvas – the fabric quite dusty from being unused for over a hundred years, but the dust will just tell another story within whatever will be painted there.

“I don’t have any paint that hasn’t dried out long ago,” Taehyung says, then he stops talking when the bed no longer has a Jungkook in it. Taehyung turns around, and Jungkook is back in the room before his eyes even refocus.

He watches Jungkook set down a few bottles of paint on the nightstand. The same simple colors he first brought him long ago – the colors he loved learning to paint with, knowing just how to mix the basic colors to get the shades and tones he wanted. He never worked with different base colors from that very first night; it just became part of who he is as a painter.

“That day when we were testing the bond, and Jimin and Hoseok and Yoongi and I took a walk to the city, I picked up some paint when we were out there, just in case.”

That was before they had even kissed. Before they told each other the extent of their love.

“My darling,” Taehyung says, his voice cracking. Jungkook takes him into his arms. “You are so sweet to me. So kind.”

“So are you, Tae,” Jungkook says. “I know you don’t think so, but you are. I wouldn’t love you like I do otherwise. I wouldn’t love you like this if you weren’t those things to me too.”

He isn’t sure that he will ever believe that, that he could be so many good things to Jungkook when there are so few good things in him that the vastness of the bad ones makes them nothing, but he will try to take his word for it, because he trusts his boy more than anything in the world.

Jungkook gets on the bed again and pats his thighs. “Come here,” he requests. “I’m hungry.”

Taehyung laughs. “Is that any way to speak to your sire?” he asks, even as he has already begun straddling him. Jungkook leans in to bite him, but Taehyung halts him by a hold on the front of his neck. “Ask me. You do not just demand, darling. Ask me.”

The tips of Jungkook’s ears grow red. “Can I?” he asks quietly.

Taehyung’s thumb brushes back and forth against his throat, trying to soothe him before he can get overwhelmed. “Can you what?”

“Can I please feed from you, sire?”

“Yes, my darling,” Taehyung says. “Of course.” He keeps Jungkook where he is with his hand on his neck, and he moves closer. He tilts his head to the side, then once he’s within reach of Jungkook’s mouth, Jungkook digs his fangs into his skin and begins to drink.

Taehyung thinks he used more venom than he was intending, because he starts to feel warm and fuzzy. He sinks onto Jungkook while little mewls fall from his lips. It feels so good, but he wants to be here with Jungkook as himself, so he says, “Less venom, please, sweetheart.”

Jungkook slides his fangs out. Taehyung can feel his blood trickling down his neck. “I didn’t use any,” he says. “You told me not to if you don’t ask for it first.” Jungkook studies him, then a small smile comes to his lips. “I think it’s just because you love me, baby.”

Taehyung doesn’t have time to respond – time to agree – before Jungkook is licking the blood from his neck and drinking from him again. Maybe it’s the idea of them finally having talked about everything that is making him feel drunk off of his love for him. He nuzzles his face in Jungkook’s neck, and he bites too. Jungkook moans against his skin as he drinks, and they both become greedy with it. Taehyung doesn’t even realize he’s started to grind against Jungkook’s lap until Jungkook controls the movement of his hips so their cocks drag together as they slowly harden.

Taehyung’s hand, still on the front of Jungkook’s neck, can feel his throat bob as he swallows his blood. It is making Taehyung’s pants feel tight, knowing he’s feeding his fledgling well. He slides his fangs out of Jungkook’s neck and licks the wounds closed, and Jungkook follows right after so he can crash their lips together. They moan into each other’s mouth tasting the other’s blood on their tongue, then tasting what it’s like when they are mixed together. It really is their blood; they’re whose blood runs in each other’s veins, they are each other in so many different ways, so intertwined that they can never be unwoven.

Taehyung starts to push Jungkook down so he’s lying on his back, then he reaches for the bottle of lube on the bedside table. Jungkook is already spreading his legs for him, looking at him with red irises. Taehyung is certain that his own are the same shade as they begin to lose themselves to each other – almost like all of the many times Taehyung has lost to himself, to the monster in him, but losing themselves in each other, where they are safe and protected and loved.

Even though Taehyung feels desperate and crazed, he is a gentleman, and his mate is his sole purpose in life. So he asks, “Is it okay if I–”

“Yes, yes, please, Tae,” Jungkook says with a laugh, even though he sounds desperate too. “I want you to finger me, I want you inside me, please.”

“Okay, okay, my love.” Taehyung quickly gathers some lube onto his fingers while Jungkook watches him. He leans down and kisses Jungkook again, immediately allowing Jungkook’s tongue into his mouth as his hand slips beneath the hem of his pants.

Taehyung realizes he hasn’t touched Jungkook yet. They made love yesterday, but Taehyung did not even touch him; he was the one being touched.

He is going to take his time to touch and lick and bite and kiss every part of Jungkook, but not right now. Right now, he can tell that his love is desperate – and not the good kind of desperate, but the kind that he could fall into tears at any moment, so Taehyung wants to give him what he wants, because he kind of feels like that too.

“Here, my love, bite me again while I–” Jungkook sinks his teeth into his neck, making Taehyung loudly moan as he circles his slick fingers around Jungkook’s hole. He wants to see, he wants to watch, but he’s stuck in this spot as his fledgling feeds on him – and what a wonderful way to be stuck. Jungkook moans in return when Taehyung sinks the first finger inside of him. He is so warm inside, so tight that it makes Taehyung lightheaded, or perhaps that is the blood loss he is experiencing as Jungkook drinks from him so greedily. Taehyung does not waste a second before slipping his middle finger inside, because his body moves on its own, remembering just how Jungkook likes it as if there hasn’t been over a century since they were last like this.

And his fingers know exactly where to aim to get Jungkook’s fangs to slide out of him as a loud moan comes from him. Taehyung can feel his blood running down his neck, but he pays it no mind. He just continues massaging Jungkook’s prostate, watching how fucking gorgeous he is. His shirt riding up his toned stomach, his hair fanned out against the bed, the curve of his neck looking so tempting that Taehyung cannot help but to allow himself to succumb to the pleasure with Jungkook. When Taehyung fits a third finger inside of him, he fits his fangs into his neck too. He sucks the blood from Jungkook’s neck, feeling drunk off the pretty little noises he is making. He starts to scissor his fingers apart, stretching him so he can fit his cock inside. It’s fucking throbbing in his pants, but he cannot and will not do anything to provide any relief now when every bit of his attention is focused on his love. Rubbing his prostate, nibbling on his neck, pulling his fangs out to kiss his lips.

“I’m ready, sire, please, I’m ready,” Jungkook begs.

Taehyung leans back, and he sees that Jungkook’s t-shirt has drops of blood on it, because the puncture holes on Taehyung’s neck still have not been closed. Taehyung wants to see the blood on Jungkook’s skin rather than his shirt, so Taehyung rips it off. He does the same with his own, then they both fumble with taking the rest of their clothing off.

Taehyung looks down at his chest. It is lined with stray trails of blood. He looks up, and he sees Jungkook lick his lips as he traces them with his red eyes. Before he can pounce, Taehyung forces him to stay on his back with a firm hand on his chest. He knows his boy will get impatient and take matters into his own hands, so Taehyung aligns his cock against his hole, and he pushes in.

Jungkook is so tight he feels like he is losing his mind. And Jungkook looks like he is, the way his mouth is parted in a silent moan while his eyes roll back as Taehyung feeds his hole inch by inch. “Fuck, my cock missed your little hole, my darling,” Taehyung moans.

Once Taehyung’s hips rest against Jungkook’s ass, Taehyung leans down and bites Jungkook’s collarbone. He bites his pectoral muscle, then his neck. Bite marks of his, his sire laying claim and not closing the wounds, letting his skin be slowly painted in red.

Taehyung looks at his face to make sure he is ready. Jungkook is just so mesmerizing, so gorgeous. His flushed cheeks and trusting eyes. Taehyung pulls his hips back, and he’s pulled to Jungkook when he slides back in. Jungkook sinks his teeth into his neck, right where his puncture holes never closed. Their blood smears together between their torsos. Taehyung moans at the slide of his cock into Jungkook’s tight hole. He starts to thrust slowly, focusing on the pleasure rather than establishing a graceful rhythm.

Taehyung’s hand rests on Jungkook’s neck to feel him swallow his blood. The bob of his throat, and the vibration of the moan that gets stuck there too. “Am I feeding my fledgling well?” he asks, his voice low and deep in a way that makes Jungkook whimper. Taehyung is holding himself back from whimpering, trying to be commanding and present and someone who moans, not whimpers.

Jungkook nods, his fangs still stuck in his neck and hurting him with the movement. As long as Jungkook feels good though, that is all that matters. So he starts to thrust into him quicker, making sure his cock is angled toward his prostate the entire time. It makes Jungkook throw his head back and moan. Taehyung watches the blood drip from his neck and patter onto Jungkook’s mouth, a few drops sliding down his cheeks when he doesn’t lick his lips in time. Taehyung leans down and crashes their lips together. He gently bites on Jungkook’s bottom lip, then his own, then they kiss with their blood coloring each other’s lips. It only intensifies the kiss, tasting their blood it in, on their tongues, light, but there. Taehyung licks his own lips, then Jungkook’s to close the wounds, then he leans back.

He starts to fuck him faster, Jungkook’s hole gripping his cock, every time he pulls out tightening to pull him back in. Taehyung takes Jungkook’s cock into his hand and slowly strokes it as his thrusts pick up.

And Taehyung can’t help it. The view of Jungkook spread out before him, the sensation of feeling him on his cock, his hand growing wet with Jungkook’s precum. He whimpers, sounding desperate and needy. He watches Jungkook’s eyes light up while his pupils dilate. He pulls Taehyung down onto him so he’s lying fully on top of him. Jungkook’s hands tangle into the hair at his nape and gently scratch him there. Taehyung can’t thrust as fully like this, but he does the best he can, mostly just humping him.

“My Tae,” Jungkook says softly, a moan underlying the words. “My baby.”

It surprises Taehyung when a sob comes out of him. He should have noticed it has been building from the start. He should have known it’d be there before they even started. Because– “I–I–Jungkook, I lived w-without you for s-so long.”

“I know, baby, I know,” Jungkook says, his voice sounding broken. Taehyung fucks him better, making his thrusts longer even if it is not very comfortable. “I’m sorry, I w-wish I could’ve done something, or c-could have found you sooner.”

Taehyung wants to comfort Jungkook, wants to tell him to stop being silly and that it’s okay, but he can’t. All he can do is sob while he fucks him and Jungkook holds him.

“Here, let’s move, lay on your back,” Jungkook tells him.

“N-No, I’m the one who–” But Taehyung finds himself on his back anyway, with Jungkook already straddling him. His boy reaches behind himself and grabs Taehyung’s cock, then he slowly sinks down on it with a dreamy sigh.

He looks very content when it is all the way inside. “Fuck, I missed your cock,” he says. Jungkook’s hands rest on his chest and carefully roll his nipples between his finger and thumb as Taehyung continues to silently cry. The teasing touch makes his body twitch, because he has always been so sensitive there, and Jungkook knows. He knows how to play with his body, how to use it to his advantage to get exactly what he wants. Jungkook leans down, and Taehyung moans when he licks his tears from his cheeks. “Let me take care of you, baby.”

“But–”

“Shh. You were alone for so long. I’m here again. Let me take care of you.”

Taehyung wants that so, so badly. But he is the one topping, he was supposed to take care of Jungkook. But he just–he wants that. He does, he wants that. So he reluctantly nods.

“Good,” Jungkook says. His hand brushes through his hair, fingertips trailing down his face. “You’re my good boy, aren’t you?” Taehyung’s eyes go wide. He watches Jungkook smile at his reaction. He reluctantly nods again. “You are,” Jungkook agrees. “My good baby. My good sire. Just let your fledgling take care of you, okay?” Taehyung silently nods again, feeling entranced. He is good. He is a good sire, he’s a good boy for his fledgling.

His hands rest on Jungkook’s hips just to have somewhere to hold onto. He watches Jungkook rise up onto his knees, so far that his cock almost slides out. But it doesn’t, because he sits back down, every single inch swallowed by Jungkook’s hole.

Jungkook looks so beautiful as he moans, as he looks down and watches his whimpery sire. Jungkook is so tight and warm and wet and–perfect. He is so perfect and he feels so good and this is his love, his love of his entire long life. His love who is so kind to him, who tells him he sounds pretty when he whimpers, that he looks pretty when he cries.

Taehyung takes Jungkook’s arm, and he bites his wrist. He drinks from him there, feeling overwhelmed from the blood and the tightness around his cock and Jungkook’s, “Take as much as you want, baby. Could take everything if you wanted to, I’d let you, sire.” Taehyung would tell Jungkook that too if he could find the words to speak, would let Jungkook drain him dry if it means he ate well.

Taehyung doesn’t take it all from him though. He slides his fangs out and licks the wounds closed, and Jungkook uses his free hand for more leverage and starts to bounce on his cock more quickly. The sound of their skin slapping together rings around the room, their bed bouncing beneath them. All Taehyung can do is moan, from the feeling and from Jungkook’s words. Jungkook is so kind to him. He makes him feel loved, he makes him feel like parts of him might be good.

“Close,” Taehyung manages to choke out.

“Me too, sire,” Jungkook says. He starts to bounce faster, tightening himself around Taehyung’s cock.

Taehyung plants his feet into the mattress, and he fucks up into Jungkook when Jungkook moves down. He meant just to help, but with a loud, surprised moan, Jungkook collapses down onto him.

Taehyung does not mind though. He wraps his arms around Jungkook in a hug, holding him close to keep him there as he begins thrusting up into him as fast and hard as he can. Jungkook moans so beautifully, the sound like music to his ears and the vibration against his chest comforting like the purr of a cat. Or the purr of his fledgling, when he remembers it is what he can do, and what he is feeling.

“My darling,” Taehyung manages to get out. He turns his head and kisses Jungkook’s cheekbone. He can feel Jungkook getting closer, when his hole tightens around his cock, when his moans finally get whimpery too.

“Please, sire, p-please, please,” he begs. Taehyung would give him anything, anything in the world, so he fucks him faster, making sure the head of his cock rams into his prostate. Jungkook starts grinding his cock between their torsos, gliding through the pooling blood there, and it is only a second later that Jungkook comes with a loud cry of his name.

Taehyung doesn’t let up. He keeps the same pace, even as he comes too. He fucks them through their orgasms, then just at the edge of oversensitivity. He slows down his thrusts until they become lazy and calm, then they stop altogether.

Taehyung sinks into the mattress with a sigh. Jungkook nuzzles his face into his neck and stays right on top of him. Little lazy kisses on his neck, occasionally licking up the spots of dried blood, but mostly just laying there, holding each other.

Nothing will ever take this from him again.

– ☾ –

“Sire, nothing bad will happen. You’re acting like you’re holding a bomb.”

Taehyung chuckles. He feels like it is, like if he even moves the paintbrush in his hand, something will explode.

But Jungkook is right. Nothing bad will happen. Maybe it will unlock some memories, and whether they are bad or good, Jungkook will be here to hold him if he needs him. And he just–he misses painting so much. He didn’t know how much until it is all in front of him, and the only muse he has ever had is stretched out across the bed. So he takes a deep breath, and he grabs his palette. He starts to pour different paint colors on it, and he gets to work.

God, he missed this. The feeling of the brush in his hand, mixing different colors and making little adjustments until it is just the hue he wants. Feeling Jungkook’s eyes on him as he does so, just watching him with admiration and adoration – the same way Taehyung does when he paints him.

“We should probably let the others come home at some point,” Taehyung says as he tries to turn his red paint into maroon.

“Yeah,” Jungkook sighs.

“I love living with them,” he says, “but I just… I dunno, I want you all to myself. I want to have our own home, where only we are.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Jungkook says. “The property the manor is built on is really big. Do you think anybody would like to have their own houses? I mean, everyone here is coupled up. Or, well–trio’d up?”

Taehyung snorts. “Yeah, you’re right,” he says. “I’m sure the others would like to have their own place, and it is not like any of us would be far if they chose to stay on the property.”

“How would that work? It’s not like the property is accessible by any roads.”

“Hm,” Taehyung thinks. “Yes, I suppose we will have to think it through.” Humans are more skeptical than they were the previous times they expanded the manor. They would probably not be as willing to accept the strangeness of it all, and how all of their supplies and tools have arrived.

“Tae?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Have you not noticed that you’re painting?”

Taehyung freezes. The brush is in his hand, with the bristles against the canvas, which is already partially filled in with color to paint the background. “Oh,” he says. It is all so natural that he didn’t even notice.

“How are you feeling?” Jungkook’s head is resting against his bicep, watching him in a position he has been in so many times before. Taehyung is sure he is recognizing how familiar the view from his side is too.

He dips his brush in the paint again and continues. “I feel good,” he says, with an unconscious curve to his lips. There is nothing scary or bad, at least not yet. It’s just–he is just painting. He is painting the way he once did, as the same person who got older and experienced more things. He is painting as someone who is a culmination of all of his past selves, and it is not scary or bad. He is simply painting his love.

Jungkook – always so energetic and difficult to contain – just lies there and watches him. Jungkook has always been full of energy and movement, but when he is being painted, he stays however Taehyung wants him, just watching him.

Jungkook is naked – just like Taehyung is himself – but clothed in the moonlight that covers him on their bed. The curtains are open, showing a view of the dark forest surrounding them. They would be so vulnerable if they were anybody else, being so isolated and open – Taehyung would probably feel uneasy if they were human. But they are safe and alone, just the two of them.

Once the background is somewhat painted, Taehyung starts to work on the shape of Jungkook’s body. The curve of it, how he lays on his side and his waist dips before rising again for his hips. His legs resting against the bed, his head lying on his arm. He can’t wait to get started on painting the details of everything – his favorite part. The blush on Jungkook’s cheeks, the relaxed drop of his wrist, the lines in his lips. “Such a pretty little thing, aren’t you?” Taehyung asks as he continues to paint. He glances over, wanting to watch the rise of Jungkook’s blush.

“Do you remember,” Jungkook asks, “that one time when there was that really bad storm in town? And it knocked out the power for a day?”

“I do,” Taehyung giggles, because he knows exactly where this is going. “Tell me about it.”

“Well,” Jungkook says as Taehyung mixes up some more paint for the shadows of his skin tone. “There was a really bad storm one night, and it was really scary, honestly. It became less scary because you kept apologizing, because you’re supposed to protect me but there wasn’t anything you could do against a thunderstorm.”

Taehyung laughs, because he remembers it too. It’s not funny though! He felt so helpless; all he could do was hold Jungkook, but Jungkook kept insisting that that was enough.

“It was scarier than storms are now, because I dunno, the place we lived wasn’t as well-built as places are now.”

“Do you think it’s still there?” Taehyung asks, painting part of Jungkook’s bottom leg a slightly darker shade since it’s in the shadow of the other.

“Oh,” Jungkook says, eyes widening like he hadn’t thought of that. Taehyung hadn’t either until now. “I don’t know. Maybe? Wouldn’t be a horse stable anymore though,” he chuckles.

“Would you ever want to go see?”

Jungkook nods. “Would you?”

Taehyung isn’t sure. But he thinks yeah, maybe he would like to. His and Jungkook’s first home together. He’s certain that if it is there, it looks nothing like it anymore. He is sure much of the greenery surrounding the town is gone too. But maybe it’s still there…

He nods. “Yeah,” he finally says. “I would like to see.”

They both sounded reluctant, so Jungkook says, “When summer comes, we can see how we feel about it then. Then if we go, it’ll be the same season we first met in.”

Taehyung nods. “Good idea, sweetheart.”

“When it stormed that one night,” Jungkook continues, “it knocked the power out in town. Just for a night and maybe into the next day, but still, it was so annoying. And you went onnnnn and on about how you grew up without electricity and this was so normal for you and I was so used to all these luxuries – keep in mind we were living above horses – and you guys had to go out and hunt for your food, which doesn’t even seem true, because it’s not like you were a caveman.” Jungkook keeps going on as Taehyung giggles, hearing all of it happen again. Jungkook defending himself while Taehyung teased him for living a cushy life (which, in retrospect, they did not).

“So then,” Jungkook finally continues as Taehyung is panting his kneecap, “you challenged me to live a week without all of the ‘little luxuries,’ as you called them, that I’d gotten used to. And you said I didn’t have to hunt for any meat I ate, but I had to gather other things I ate. Even though I know you had a market! Seriously, you acted like you were from the stone ages. We didn’t even have running water at our house above the stable, Tae. You acted like I was living like we are now.”

Jungkook rants for a long time after that, and Taehyung lets him, his cheeks hurting from smiling and giggling as Jungkook goes on and on – recounting the many ways he won the challenge, and some of the ways he failed (but insists they weren’t actually accurate to the time period Taehyung grew up in, so it doesn’t count).

By the time Jungkook is finished with his monologue, the shape of his body has been painted, all while Taehyung listened and watched and laughed – and didn’t even mind the many times Jungkook got out of position to talk with wild movements. Once he is fully relaxed again at the end of his tale, he begins whining for kisses like he has always done after a while. So Taehyung sets his things down and decides to take a break for the rest of the night.

It is so familiar. The setting down of his palette and brush. Jungkook watching the few steps it takes to walk to the bed. Jungkook rolling on his back right when Taehyung gets on the bed and straddles him. The way he looks up at him with sparkling eyes that finally close when Taehyung leans down and kisses him. It is all something they have done so, so many times.

“My darling boy,” Taehyung says. He leans down to kiss him once more before he sits across from him and takes his hand, playing with his fingers as they talk. “You know, we could do a challenge now where we both live as we did back then, and that would be much more of a challenge than it was when you did it with the time I grew up in.”

“I don’t want to do that,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung laughs. “Yeah, I don’t want to give up our bed.”

“Even as I think back on it – all the things we didn’t have, the ways life used to be harder – it doesn’t even seem so bad, because I had you.”

Taehyung smiles softly. “I know what you mean,” he says. Having lived the life he does now, he would go back to that time and live there permanently without a second thought if it meant he would have gotten Jungkook.

But now he gets his love again, in a much more comfortable life than what they had then. But even then, they were happy.

“We should text everyone,” Jungkook says. “Just to let them know we’re okay.”

Taehyung nods. “You’re right. There are spare cellular phones in the–” The bed is then empty, and Taehyung giggles thinking of his naked mate running through the manor. Jungkook returns in a flurry, a cellular phone in his hand. He holds it out to Taehyung. “I do not know how to use that device.”

“I know, that’s why it’s funny.”

Taehyung chuckles and shakes his head. He takes the phone from Jungkook with an, “I am happy I can provide you with entertainment.”

“Payback from when you teased me and made me live like you supposedly did for a week.”

Taehyung laughs. “I suppose that is true. Now let’s see here…” He hesitantly taps the phone screen, and brightens when the phone does. The plain screen that shows the date and time does not change. “Did somebody forget to program this phone, darling? I don’t see where I would be able to send an electronic message to anybody.”

“They’re called texts, Tae, and you’re cute.” Taehyung nods with an “ahh” when Jungkook drags his finger up the screen and changes what appears on it.

“Alright then,” Taehung says, eyeing all of the little squares he is met with. “So I suppose that perhaps the correct place to go is within this little box here? It has a speech bubble I used to see in comic strips I once read in the paper, so that could mean talking, right? Well, I suppose that is where you could call someone instead, but let’s see… I will not break anything if it is the incorrect place, right?”

Taehyung finds himself on his back on the bed, his face covered in kisses by a very sweet Jungkook. “God, I can’t,” Jungkook shakes his head, kissing his lips again and again and again.

Taehyung can barely keep his smile away to allow him to kiss him. “I will happily interact with every piece of technology we have in the manor if it gets you to kiss me like this.”

“You’re just–god, you’re so cute.”

“So are you, my darling.” Jungkook pulls him so he’s sitting up again. “You didn’t answer my question. If I click the wrong thing will I break the cellular phone?” Jungkook nods. Taehyung’s eyes go wide. “W-Well, is this the correct location I am to go?” He points down to the box on the phone, but as he watches Jungkook press his lips together, he knows he is being teased. Taehyung reaches out and tugs on Jungkook’s ear, pulling a whine from him.

He clicks it. It just shows a blank screen.

“This is just a spare phone,” Jungkook says, “so there aren’t any texts on it. But it’s the right place. Click this little notepad icon in the top right corner.” Taehyung does so, knowing he’s supposed to tap it and not press down for a long time like he once did – something Jimin teased him for. He is very used to being teased, and he doesn’t mind it; he knows it’s silly.

“I suppose I would type Namjoon’s name here, correct?”

‘Yes, good,” Jungkook praises him, sounding very genuine.

“I’m learning,” Taehyung says proudly.

He does so quite slowly though, because it really takes a while to type out Namjoon’s name. “Now tap his contact right there. Good, now you can just type your message to him in the text box.”

Taehyung ignores Jungkook’s giggles, because he is very focused on slowly typing out his message. He’s certain it takes at least five minutes before he’s done. He looks at Jungkook, and he instructs him to press the arrow to send it. Taehyung watches it convert into a chat bubble, with the word “delivered” beneath it.

Taehyung
Good evening, Namjoon. I would like to apologize to you and the others for being forced out of your home on our behalf. I would like to thank you for it as well. If it would not be too much of a bother, I would like to have another day alone with Jungkook. After that, you may all return to your home. I am not sure if you have told the others anything, but if you have not, you may do so, if you wish. It is okay that it comes from you, because I am unsure if I would be able to say the words myself. Thank you for doing this for us, Namjoon, and thank you for many other things. Have a good night, and we will see you soon. Sincerely, Kim Taehyung 

“That was all really good!” Jungkook says.

Taehyung sets the phone aside and says a bashful, “Thanks…” He supposes he will get used to it soon enough because he and Jungkook will have cellular phones of their own soon. He falls onto his back in their bed, and he pulls Jungkook into his arms. “Now I want to savor the rest of my alone time with my darling little fledgling.”

“I think we should definitely get everyone to build their own houses,” Jungkook says. “It feels different knowing it’s just us here. It’s nice.”

“It is,” Taehyung agrees. “And if there is anything you’d like, please do tell me. Any decor changes you would like to make, or rooms you would like to have. Anything you want that could make it feel more like your home, and not just somewhere you are living.”

Jungkook tilts his head up. He kisses his cheek, then he rests his head back down, his ear right against their matching heartbeats. “You’re here, so that’s all I need to feel at home.”

Chapter Text

Taehyung can hear their friends returning to the manor, and he feels full of restless, nervous energy. They probably know the situation between him and Jungkook, and he isn’t sure how to interact with them when they will surely all be watching the two of them. It makes him feel embarrassed for some reason. He isn’t sure why, because this is undoubtedly the best thing that has ever happened to him. It is most likely because a vulnerable part of himself has been shared, and he does not allow others to see vulnerable parts of him. Except Jungkook, because Jungkook has been the exception to every single thing in his life.

“I’m sure Jimin wants to talk to you,” Jungkook says as he watches his mate pace around their bedroom.

Taehyung nods. He would like to speak to Jimin about it directly. Jimin is his best friend and has been the exception to many things a lot of times before too. He would have told Jimin directly if he knew the words to say. He wants to talk about it to someone who isn’t the other person experiencing this, to see what he thinks.

“I’ll go hangout with Hoseok and Seokjin,” Jungkook says, “and I’ll tell Jimin to come in here?”

“Y-Yeah, that would be good,” Taehyung says. He’s so nervous. It is so unlike him to be nervous, but that is because it was once unlike him to feel anything at all. He tries to tell himself that it is good to feel nervous, because it means that he cares. And he does – so, so much, about his best friend, and about Jungkook.

Jungkook kisses him and tells him he loves him before he goes. Taehyung barely has a second of alone time before Jimin has arrived – obviously waiting for the moment that he can now crash himself into Taehyung with the tightest hug he has ever received.

“Oh my god, Tae, what–how–”

“Why are you the one sobbing?!” Taehyung asks.

“Because this is insane and I love you!” he cries.

It effectively breaks any of the nervousness, and he remembers it is silly to be nervous around Jimin. “I love you too,” Taehyung says, hugging him back. Jimin suddenly jerks out of his arms, eyes wide. Taehyung’s eyes become the same, especially when Jimin starts to touch various parts of his body – even lifting his shirt up to press his hand against his stomach. “What in the world are you doing?!”

“Y-You’re–you’re warm.”

“Oh,” Taehyung says. He had not forgotten that he used to be so cold, because he thinks of it every time he and Jungkook are holding each other. He’d forgotten, though, that others have not noticed the change, nor that he has been able to notice if it is there. It makes sense, because everybody avoided touching him when they were able to, because they hated to see the concealed pain in his eyes when they had to quickly pull their hands away. “Yeah. Jungkook.”

Jimin blinks at him. More tears appear in his eyes. Taehyung leads him to the bed, and they both crawl inside beneath the covers. They lie on their sides, facing each other.

“What did Namjoon tell you?” Taehyung asks.

“Not much,” Jimin says. “He said you should be the one to tell us all of the details – and that he didn’t know most of the details. Just that… you and Jungkook knew each other before. That you loved each other before, before you met a few months ago.”

“Yeah…” Taehyung says quietly, a soft smile on his face. “We thought the bond we feel was just because we are sire and fledgling, but it is because… because we found each other again. We are bound together in so many ways. It is almost like a reassurance that this is permanent this time. There will be no separating us again.” He sighs, because he doesn’t even know how to start. “So I was… I had an interest, I suppose, in Jungkook when he was a human.”

“When you used to stalk him?”

Taehyung wryly chuckles. “Yes, when I used to stalk him.”

“So that means… y-you did it because you… you recognized him?” Jimin looks to be on the verge of a breakdown, and it makes Taehyung laugh. He doesn’t know how either of them are going to get through this story.

“Yes, I suppose so,” Taehyung says. “I just–when I saw him, something made me stop. It was the strangest feeling, like a confusing curiosity. It only deepened and I could never figure out what it was, and then it turned into something else. I would watch him as he slept to make sure he was okay every night. When I wasn’t with him, I thought about him the entire time and all of my days were spent waiting until I could go out to find him again so I could watch him some more.” Taehyung chuckles. “And it is funny, really, because when Jungkook and I met a long, long time ago, we met because he had been watching me in the night.” Jimin lets out a sob, loud and sudden like it escaped, but he keeps himself contained. “Anyway, I used to watch him, and I did not know why I cared. It became an obsession, and it turned into desperation when I could not find him for days. An even worse desperation when I found him dying. I had just accepted that this was the way life would be, because there was nothing to do but that.

“Namjoon was always so confused by the bond when I turned Jungkook. I had assumed it was normal between sires and fledglings, and I counted it as a blessing that I could feel him so deeply, that we were bound together in this way. Things soon started getting a little… strange with us. There would be little moments that felt strangely familiar, but I chalked it up to déja vu, or either of us misspeaking. And Jungkook and I went on a date to the museum, and there…” He starts to get choked up now too – while Jimin has been silently crying this entire time. “There was a painting there, hanging in the museum. And it was of Jungkook, laying on our bed, in our old home. It was uncredited, but titled ‘My Love,’ and it was Jungkook, painted by me. And when we saw it, everything came rushing back. We remembered everything. The way we used to love each other over a century ago. How we met and how we lived and how Jungkook died, and how most of me died with him. It was all there.”

Jimin finally releases a full sob, and he cuddles into Taehyung. Taehyung laughs as he holds him back, and they cry together. Jimin is almost no better than Taehyung has been these past few days, and it is not even happening to him. “It’s like–it’s like a romance novel, b-but it’s you and it’s real and I love you and it’s–it’s so much more.” They try to wait to talk more until they are able to calm down from their crying, but they soon see that there is no hope for that, so they carry on through their tears. “How does that work? Like, did he not die? Was he turned once you left? I don’t get it…”

“Neither do we,” Taehyung says. “He died. He wasn’t alive this whole time. He was born twenty-six years ago. But it’s just–he is the same Jungkook. When I used to watch him sleep, when I was so confused about how panicked I felt whenever he was no longer in my sight, it is because he was my Jungkook. I don’t understand how it all happened. It’s just–it’s like he was reborn. It is strange for him too, to have all of these memories and know that it was him, it’s the same Jungkook as he is right now. It’s all so strange and confusing.”

“How is he taking it?” Jimin asks.

“Much, much better than I think a normal person would,” Taehyung chuckles, one from Jimin too. “That has been the case with most things though. Nothing fazes him too much; he seems to embrace everything.”

“Is he the same?” Jimin asks hesitantly. “From who you loved back then…”

It finally causes Taehyung to weep. “Y-Yeah, he is,” he says before sobs follow. He’s pulled into Jimin’s arms, and it feels so lovely to finally be able to be held by his best friend. His love returned to him and made him warm again, and now he can finally feel his best friend too. He has wondered so many times what it must be like to be held by Jimin, someone he loves who loves him so fully. It is more wonderful than he could have imagined. “He’s–yeah, he’s the same. He’s my Jungkook. He was my Jungkook when I met him again too, but now those two things touch in a way I didn’t even know existed. H-He’s different, of course, just as I am after so many years. But who he is – that excitable, childlike, curious, energetic, silly, sweet boy – is the same.” Taehyung can feel Jungkook through the bond, his light, warm energy that is always with him. He can hear his laughter across the manor too when he reaches for it. He feels whole in a way he never thought he would.

Jimin shakes his head once their tears die down. “God, this is all just so…”

“I know,” Taehyung says. There is no word for it; they all fall short. “Were you alarmed? When you left?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Jimin says. Taehyung almost wants to apologize even though he did not send them away. “Namjoon didn’t tell us anything. He just said that you and Jungkook need alone time, and that we needed to go for a while. At first I thought it was because you guys wanted to have sex and you were modest, but Namjoon was really tense and acting weirdly, and I didn’t think he was invested in your guys’ sex life enough to have any feelings about it. But we left and he said he’d explain when he could, and he did a few days later when he said you reached out.”

It is a good segue to bring up the prospect of them all building their own homes, but he’d prefer to do it in front of everyone, so he proposes, “Why don’t we join the others?” He is starting to feel uneasy without Jungkook as well. He already could not stand any distance between them as it was, so now…

They get out of bed and laugh as they wipe their swollen faces, then Jimin takes his hand when they leave his room and wander down the hall of his living quarters. Taehyung loves holding his hand. It is so small in his own. Being touched by Jimin is–it’s so lovely. He did not know how badly it had been something he wanted. Jimin keeps squeezing his hand as they walk, and paired with the pleased look on his face, Taehyung thinks he is happy about it too.

Taehyung can hear the rest of the manor’s residents gathered in the game room. He knows he will miss the sound of all of them together like this, but he knows that it is not going to go away. It will be as if they never left, because the manor will remain the common space; they will just return to their own homes at times.

They arrive at the game room. Jungkook, Seokjin, and Hoseok are on the couch playing a game Taehyung (obviously) does not recognize, while Yoongi and Namjoon sit in their own chairs, alternating between watching the screen and watching their mates.

“Hi, Taetae,” Jungkook says when they walk into the room, before they’ve come into view. Taetae, sire, baby, so many names that are so different, but all things that he is to Jungkook. It is easy to understand when Jungkook is everything to Taehyung.

Taehyung stands at the back of the couch, then he bends in half to wrap his arms around Jungkook’s neck. Jungkook leans back, and Taehyung can tell that he is smiling wide as his sire kisses his cheek again and again. “Hello, my love,” he finally says. He can feel Yoongi and Namjoon staring at them, and he knows it is because they are now seeing them in their entirety. He knows they have already started to understand why there has been so much familiarity from the beginning, why Taehyung has let Jungkook do whatever he wants and take over his life, why Taehyung invited someone into his home and took on the care of a fledgling with more happiness than they have seen of him in the decades they have known him. His heart, his home, everything he is has been shut for over a century. His friends managed to pull open the door and slip inside somehow, but with the arrival of Jimin as the last one, the door was locked and the curtains were closed.

But with his love, there were no doors, there were no curtains, there were no locks. Everything was open to Jungkook, because it always has been.

“Come sit on my lap. We’re almost done with the game.”

Taehyung presses his lips together. He can see all of their friends glance at him. But everything has always been Jungkook’s, and he can have him whichever way he wants, always. So Taehyung walks around the couch, and Jungkook spreads his legs. Taehyung carefully sits between them, and Jungkook tugs him back so he is leaning against his chest. His arms wrap around him, and his hands join together holding the controller that he rests in his lap. As he still continues to play, Jungkook kisses his neck just once, making Taehyung laugh when he teases a scrape of his fangs against his skin. Then Jungkook rests his chin on his shoulder and focuses on the game again. Taehyung doesn’t even notice if their friends stare incredulously; he is just happy to be in the arms of his love again.

“Which one are you?” Taehyung asks as he tries to make sense of anything happening on the screen.

“The top right corner.”

“Ah,” Taehyung nods, even though that still does not clear anything up. All he knows is that there are men with guns running through a forest, and they occasionally shoot those guns at people. Taehyung believes an occasional zombie appears as well, but he cannot be too sure. It is very different from the game he played himself, with its nice colors and charming characters. “And are you winning?”

“Yeah,” Jungkook says. Taehyung can hear the smugness in the single word. He knows how Jungkook is, because it is met with grumbles by the others he is playing with.

“Well, good,” Taehyung says. “Keep up the good work. I hope you continue to win.”

Taehyung feels Jungkook’s nose against his neck, then his smile against his shoulder as he lets his head fall over in endeared laughter while still peeking over his shoulder. “I love you, sire.”

Taehyung rests his hand on Jungkook’s leg and squeezes. “I love you, my little darling.”

“This is disgusting,” Hoseok mutters. Then he shrieks when he’s slapped on the arm by Jimin.

“Hoseok,” Jimin says. “They were–they’re–you know that–they have reunited after a century.” Jimin starts to cry, if he ever even stopped, but he continues to power through to continue speaking. “Th-they can b-be as disgusting as they want. They–Jungkook–Tae was–Tae had to live forever w-without J-Jungkook, and n-now he’s b-back, so–s-so they can be exactly like they want, a-and–” He finally stops when Yoongi pulls him into his arms, and his sobs fully break free. Taehyung bites his bottom lip hard to hold back his laugh, even as he silently cries too.

“I was talking about this area of the map because there are zombies everywhere…” Hoseok says quietly, but it is lost on a blubbering Jimin.

As Taehyung thinks about how to bring up the idea of their friends getting their own home without it coming off poorly, he remembers something. “Baekhyun and the newborns were here when you all left,” he says. “Where are they now?”

“Wherever Baekhyun lives, I hope,” Namjoon says. He is trying to sound flippant, but he cannot hide the distress and guilt. Taehyung does not feel bad for them, but he feels just a little bad at how he does not feel bad – not about the thing itself. Perhaps he should be more kind and moral, but he simply is not where this is concerned. “We made them leave, and Baekhyun threw a fit, demanding to know where you were and what was going on. I’m surprised he hasn’t shown up or been camping out in the woods. He knew you weren’t going to be home though, so he didn’t stay. He took the fledglings with him and left. And because of how the fledglings came to be, he will not be welcomed back here.” Still, that guilt is in his tone, but he sounds more sure of himself because someone else’s moral failings far outweigh Namjoon’s – who barely has any to his name at all.

The end of whatever game they are playing announces itself just in time for Taehyung to bring everything up. He stands, because it doesn’t seem appropriate to have a serious conversation sitting in the lap of his boyfriend. So he stands before all of them.

“So… I am sure you have heard things about Jungkook and I,” he starts. “And any questions you have, I would be happy to answer to the best that I am able to. But it’s… caused me to think. I suppose that in my loneliness, I did not think of our living arrangements. Or, more accurately, that you all have your mates, but you live in the manor with me. In my loneliness, I did not think about how perhaps any of you would like your own home to call yours and your mates’. And please do not think that now that I have Jungkook, you all are pushed to the side, because it is not that whatsoever; it just led me to think about things. So I was wondering if you all would like to have your own homes? The property is rather expansive, and we have enough room to build more houses and still have acres of land between each one and more surrounding.

“And it is not because I don’t love, appreciate, or cherish you all. Your friendship…” He trails off. He tries to find the right words, but they all fall short. He will always fall short when talking about how much his friends mean to him, because it really cannot be encapsulated into words. “Your friendship has saved me. If it weren’t for you all, I would have ended my life decades ago. Having you all in my life made me believe that emptiness and darkness weren’t all that my life and who I am were made up of. I cherish your love and care, all of you. And it is why I wanted to propose this idea, so you could have spaces of your own and maybe not feel like you simply live in someone else’s home.” He also, of course, wants to have his own home with Jungkook. He wants to be alone with him, but he does not lead with that. He does not want it to sound like he’s trying to kick them out; he wants the choice to be theirs. He would happily let them stay forever. They deserve that and more, they deserve anything they want.

“Are we still allowed over?” Jimin asks.

Taehyung laughs. “Of course. At any time, the door will always be open for anyone to come and go, and I suspect it would not even feel like anyone has moved, even if just to another home across the way.” All of them look to their partners, having a silent conversation. “You do not have to decide right now. Take all the time you’d like. I just wanted to propose the idea.”

It seems they do not need time though, because they all instantly agree and tell him how fun this is going to be. Yoongi even offers to design their homes for them, since he has always had a love for architecture but never got the chance to do anything but admire and observe.

“The thought of moving out never even occurred to me,” Jimin says, and the rest of them agree. It warms Taehyung’s heart, because it must mean they have all been happy here.

They talk about how excited they are to design the houses and decorate them, and it is making Taehyung excited too. And he is also, of course, excited to have the manor be his and Jungkook’s home. Something about it seems more real, more permanent.

Jungkook has remained silent this entire time, just watching Taehyung with a soft expression on his face, stars in his eyes. “And you, my darling,” Taehyung says, walking over to him as all their friends talk. He takes Jungkook’s hands and leans down to kiss each one. “Anything you would like to do to the manor will be done. We can renovate the upstairs, clear out the dust. Redecorate any of the rooms. Add any kinds you want. Anything you want is yours.”

“Can we add an indoor pool?”

Taehyung loudly laughs. “If you would like to, then of course.”

Jungkook beams. “I just wanted to see what you’d say.”

“I will always say yes to you,” Taehyung says. “Always.”

They agree that they will spend the winter designing everything, and once the snow clears, they will start building. They will have to talk about the logistics of getting a crew and their supplies here to build them, because humans are not as gullible as they once were during the previous times they made changes to the manor, but they will work it out. The room is full of so much excitement at the idea of an exciting future to come. Taehyung does not know how he could have ever missed how much life has been in the manor. It has all always been here; he was just not enough to be able to see it.

As everyone is distracted with talking and planning and daydreaming, Namjoon comes to him. “Can we speak privately?” he asks.

“Yes, of course,” Taehyung says. There is really no such thing as private when they can all hear each other no matter where they are in the manor, which is another reason why this is a good change. Especially when he and Jungkook have added another layer of intimacy to their relationship.

Taehyung follows Namjoon to his office, and Namjoon sits in the seat beside him in front of his desk. He takes his glasses off, almost as his way of being formal and respectful like others used to take off their hats when going inside. “Taehyung, I–I am so sorry,” he says, sounding so grave. “I owe you endless apologies. I am so sorry that I knew this about you and Jungkook but didn’t tell you as soon as I realized. I just–I didn’t know how to tell someone something like that. I didn’t know how to, or if I should have. I tried to help you figure it out on your own because I thought it would be better that way. But I am sorry. I did not know how to approach the situation, and it was not my secret to keep from you. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, no, that’s okay,” Taehyung says. “That is more than okay. That was a responsibility you should not have had weighing on you. And I think you handled it very well; sending us to the museum was a great way to help us figure it out. I am sorry it was something heavy you were carrying with you. There is nothing to apologize for. I understand.”

“I’ve spent this whole time researching what I could, but the only records I have been able to find that were anything like your situation were your own writings. I have seen nothing about–about being reborn. Nothing about a bond, whether between a sire and fledgling or two people – vampires or humans. There is nothing I can figure out. Nothing about Jungkook-ah being a bat either.”

Taehyung had entirely forgotten about that. He thinks Jungkook probably did too, with everything else they have had going on. “Yeah, I don’t see how that could be connected to any of this. I think it is just some weird thing about Jungkook himself.”

“Yeah, I think so too.”

“Well, as long as he is happy with it, that is all that matters. With any of this. And he seems to be, and if that is enough for him, it is enough for me.”

“And what about you?” Namjoon asks. “Are you happy?”

Taehyung softly smiles, shyly looking down at his hands. He can hear Jungkook laugh down the hall. His friends’ laughter too. “I am happier than I have ever been,” he says.

Chapter Text

“Darling, this device is making a noise,” Taehyung calls out to Jungkook, who is brushing his teeth in the bathroom. He walks out, dressing in pajamas with freshly-washed hair, brushing his teeth. Taehyung sees his fangs out, and he almost died when Jungkook said he drops them so they would get brushed too. They do not need to brush their teeth and do not experience any of the negative effects of not doing so, but Jungkook has kept up the routine because he likes the minty feeling after.

“The guy you emailed probably replied,” he says through a foamy mouth.

“Oh,” Taehyung says. “Can you show me how to access it?”

Jungkook walks back to the bathroom and rinses his mouth, then he gives his sire a minty kiss. Jungkook opens the laptop and clicks around, then he shows him the text on the screen.

Hey Tae hahahahahaha who sends emails anymore 😂 Yeah Lix and I would love to come by! And I’m excited to teach your fledgling how to tattoo! Also you have a fledgling??? Felix literally gasped when he read that. Hows the day after tomorrow? You can text you know 😭Don’t have to email us anyway see ya!!

Taehyung sighs. “I suppose you should teach me how to use the cellular phone.” Seokjin picked them up from the post office when he went out earlier, but Taehyung has felt too intimidated to open the box. Jungkook did not have the same inhibitions and pretty much ripped the box in half to get it out when they arrived.

Taehyung did not even really know how outdated sending emails to friends is, so his knowledge on cellular phones and technology is lacking much more than he initially thought. Jungkook grew up in a generation heavily reliant on cellular phones and did not have one, so his excitement is quite exuberant. It is not that way for Taehyung, and he still does not see the appeal in having one. He supposes it is good just in case though, because he would like to be able to reach Jungkook or any of their friends if needed.

Jungkook is clearly delighted to show him all about it. It doesn’t even seem to have a hint of teasing to it; he seems genuinely excited about his own phone, and excited to teach Taehyung about it. Jungkook hands it to him, and Taehyung looks down at it. He does not even know where to start.

“To wake it up,” Jungkook says, as if it were asleep, “you can tap the screen or press the button on the side. Here.” Jungkook moves his finger to the buttons on the side, which he learns are the power button and the volume buttons. “Do you want to set up a passcode?”

“For what?”

“To get into your phone.”

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. “Why would I do that?”

“So no one could get into it, or read your messages, or see in your photo album. Like, I dunno, strangers, or me.”

“I would not lock you out of anything,” Taehyung says. “But I suppose we should set one up for strangers, although I do not see how strangers would ever be close enough to me to access my cellular phone. Will you show me how to do it?” Taehyung can feel how pleased Jungkook is through the bond, although he does now know for what.

Jungkook directs him to the settings app (a word he has now learned: app), explaining every single thing on the way there. Jungkook is such a patient and sweet teacher and answers all of his silly questions – of which he has many. He instructs him to type in a passcode, and he chooses 0901. He can feel even more how happy Jungkook is about it. “Now neither of us will forget it,” Taehyung says once he saves the passcode.

“I already added everyone’s contacts earlier, and you can click this little phone icon here, see? Yeah, you just tap it, and you can see everybody’s information.”

Taehyung nods slowly, trying to commit it all to memory. He knows that anytime he wants to do anything, he will most likely need to ask for guidance, but he tries his best to absorb what he can now. “And what do I do with it?”

“You can text, call, or video call.”

Taehyung tilts his head to the side. “Video call?”

Jungkook nods. “Here, click Jimin’s contact. Yeah, good. And now tap this video camera icon.”

He jumps when, as soon as he does, a strange dial tone begins to play, and the screen changes. Taehyung has a deep furrow between his eyebrows. He looks behind him, then above him, and it is what is displayed on the screen as if he were looking into a handheld mirror. Jungkook has a big smile, but he isn’t laughing – more like he is endeared, rather than teasing. He opens his mouth to say something, but Taehyung jumps so violently that he drops his phone when he hears, “TAE!”

He looks around him in alarm, and Jungkook finally starts laughing. He picks up the phone from the ground, and he holds it in front of Taehyung. Taehyung leans in, confused, looking closer at Jimin on his screen, trying to understand why he is there. Jungkook turns the phone to face him and says, “I’m teaching Tae how to use his phone,” then he turns it back to Taehyung. Jimin is moving on the screen, and Taehyung recognizes his bedroom. Then he notices in the top corner that there is a reflection of him as well.

“Darling, what is this?” Taehyung asks, unable to make sense of it in his head.

Jimin and Jungkook are both smiling, but still neither laughing. “A video call,” Jungkook says. “It’s like calling on the phone, but you can see the person too.”

“So I am seeing Jimin in his bedroom right now?”

“Yep!” Jimin says.

“Hold up three fingers,” Taehyung says. Immediately, Jimin does it. “Now one.” Jimin holds up one finger.

“What are you doing?” Jungkook laughs.

“I wanted to test it out. Make sure you two weren’t making fun of me.”

“Bye, Jimin.” Jungkook says immediately. He taps a red button on the screen and throws the phone aside. He takes Taehyung’s hands, and his voice softens and grows more serious. “I, fuck, I’m sorry if the way I’ve laughed when you’ve been on the computer or the phone made you feel like I was making fun of you, sire. I wasn’t at all, fuck, I don’t want to make you feel bad. It’s because you’re so cute that it makes me giggle. It’s because you’re so, so cute and I’m so in love with you, and you’re always so serious and mature and you know everything in the world, so it’s cute seeing you do something that you don’t know, and turning to me – someone so young and inexperienced – for things. It wasn’t because I was making fun of you, but because I love you and you’re so cute. I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry, sire.”

“It’s okay, my darling,” Taehyung says softly. “I know it is silly. It’s okay. You are a very patient and kind teacher. My darling boy.” Jungkook kisses him. Taehyung hums, wrapping his arms around Jungkook’s neck. His fingers tangle in the hair at his nape, gently scratching him there, making Jungkook hum into the kiss too. Jungkook teases him with just a brush of his tongue, retreating when Taehyung tries to return it. It makes him huff a laugh into the kiss, making Jungkook smile too. Taehyung forces his tongue into Jungkook’s mouth in the next kiss though, and Jungkook licks it with his own as they kiss deeper and deeper.

Jungkook starts slowly leaning back, pulling Taehyung with him. Taehyung straddles him, then follows Jungkook down as he lies on his back, never disconnecting their lips. Jungkook’s hands run up and down his sides, from the top of his ribcage to the bottom of his hips. On the next glide down, he reaches around him and indulgently squeezes his ass.

Taehyung kisses Jungkook’s cheek, down his jaw, to his neck. Slow, wet kisses that make Jungkook sigh. His breath hitches when Taehyung sinks his teeth into his neck then licks the spot closed without even tasting him. He kisses his collarbones, then Jungkook helps him throw his shirt off.

Taehyung leans back, admiring him as he pulls the drawstring of his pajama pants. Jungkook has the most beautiful body. Sculpted so carefully with spots of such lovely imperfections, just as beautiful as the rest of him. Stretch marks and scars and beauty marks and birthmarks. It makes Taehyung pause when he remembers.

Beneath his bottom lip. His cheekbone, his cheek, the tip of his nose. His collarbone, right over his heart, beside his bellybutton. Beauty marks where Taehyung kissed him the most before he lost him.

They will take their time mapping them out – finding all the spots where he remembers kissing Jungkook so often to see if there is a permanent mark on him there, checking all of the same spots on Taehyung too. Right now, he wants to take Jungkook’s remaining clothes off and make him feel the way he deserves to feel.

Jungkook lifts his hips to let Taehyung pull off his pajama pants and boxers, leaving him bare for him. He does not even look shy or embarrassed. His confidence and self-assuredness in every aspect of his life and who he is inspires Taehyung because he wants to be more like him.

He lies down on his stomach between Jungkook’s spread legs. He kisses the spot where Jungkook’s leg meets his torso, making him giggle when Jungkook’s leg involuntarily kicks out in a familiar way because of the ticklish feeling. Taehyung glances down and sees a beauty mark right in that very spot.

He swallows to try to contain his emotions, and he takes Jungkook’s cock into his hand. He keeps their eyes locked together as he slowly strokes it, feeling it harden in his grip. Jungkook looks transfixed, gazing so deeply into Taehyung’s eyes as he breathes through his mouth. Taehyung runs his other hand up and down Jungkook’s side, wanting to feel the softness of his smooth skin. “My darling boy,” Taehyung says quietly. “Such a beautiful boy. My love. I love you so much that it brought you back to me.”

Even as Jungkook is hypnotized and struggling to remain composed as his cock fills out, he is still his silly, competitive boy. So he says, “I loved you so much that I came back.”

Taehyung laughs and shakes his head. Reaches up and teasingly tugs on Jungkook’s nipple, making him let out a mix between a moan and a whine. “I think that it must have been a joint effort,” he concedes. “I don’t think it could have happened if either of us loved the other any less.”

“I still love you more,” Jungkook mumbles.

It is not much of a punishment at all, but it is done as one when Taehyung takes Jungkook’s cock into his mouth to make him react so strongly after his mumbled reply. It works, because Jungkook lets out the most beautiful, surprised moan.

Even the taste of Jungkook’s cock is familiar. The taste of his precum, the scent of his arousal, the feeling of the length nuzzled in his throat. It is all familiar, it is coming home to who they used to be, rediscovering all of these things that they know so intimately. He knows that Jungkook likes when he slowly bobs his head, keeping eye contact with him the entire time as Jungkook watches his cock disappear in and out of his mouth. He knows Jungkook likes when his thumb runs along the sensitive area he kissed earlier, where his leg meets his torso, a place so rarely touched but is worshipped by Taehyung. He knows Jungkook likes when he occasionally drags his fangs along the top of his cock, how it always makes him let out that stuttered moan.

“Tae,” Jungkook moans, just like that. “Sire.” Taehyung's eyes fall shut when Jungkook runs his fingers through his hair, guiding the pace he wants Taehyung to suck him off. Taehyung allows him to, because Taehyung would allow Jungkook anything. He takes his cock down his throat just a touch faster, making sure his tongue is constantly sliding against the shaft. He pauses with it completely inside, his nose against the sparse hair above it as he nuzzles and swallows around his cock. Jungkook swears while his sire’s throat contracts around the length before he resumes bobbing his head again. “My Tae. So beautiful, fuck, your eyes. The w-way you look at me.” Taehyung is certain he is looking at Jungkook like he is the reason for the stars in the sky and the warmth of his skin and the rising and setting of the sun. Jungkook is a miracle he will never get used to. The moon in the sky and the stars twinkling around it, the clouds that float with the sun during the day – so many things that would be difficult to believe existed if everyone had not gotten so used to them. Jungkook is a miracle he will never get used to; he will always look at him in awe, in adoration, with love. And he’s sure that Jungkook can see him looking at him that way now, like he is the universe’s greatest creation.

Taehyung sucks him off slower. Maddeningly slowly, for both of them, so both of them can feel every centimeter of his cock being enveloped by the warmth of Taehyung’s mouth. He wants to slowly take Jungkook apart and put him back together. He wants to unravel him and find all of the spots that were aching or didn’t fit, all of the spots that went so long without being treated gently, and he wants to weave them back together carefully so that each and every part was touched by him, put back together just how it should be. Jungkook is his, he is his, he is so much of him that he is his just as much as they are both their own. Jungkook is his. He pulls his cock out of his throat until only the head is resting on his tongue. His fingers wrap around the length, slowly stroking him as he licks the head, swirls his tongue around, laps up the precum that trickles out. Jungkook brushes a tear away from his sire’s cheek, then Taehyung moans when he watches him bring his thumb to his lips to taste it.

Taehyung reaches for the bottle of lube on the bedside table. He wants to be inside Jungkook. He wants to be wrapped in his warmth, he wants to cum in him, he wants to feel the way their bodies fit so perfectly and claim him as his.

As he sucks on the tip of his cock, he uncaps the bottle and turns it to pour some of the liquid onto his fingers, but Jungkook stops him. “You don’t have to finger me.”

Taehyung lets Jungkook’s cock fall from his mouth, making a wet slapping sound when it hits his stomach. “Did you do it yourself?”

“No, but I’m, you know, a vampire.”

Taehyung runs his fingertip up and down the length of his cock, wanting to feel him more than tease him. “I am aware, my darling. I am the one who made you that way.”

He watches Jungkook’s eyes hold a quick burst of red in the irises before it fades. “Yeah, but, like, pain tolerance and stuff. Like, it won’t really hurt, and we heal right away, so you can just fuck me.”

Taehyung freezes. His eyebrows deeply furrow as he straightens up. He moves up the bed so he is over Jungkook again, looking down at him. His fingers run through his hair. “My darling,” he says softly. “I am not going to treat you less gently just because you can withstand pain. I am not going to treat you less softly just because you can tolerate violence. You have experienced enough pain throughout your lives, different kinds of it. Just because you can take it does not mean I will allow you to. You are my world, sweet fledgling, and I can only treat you as such. You are my love, so I will treat you with love.” He leans down and kisses Jungkook’s tears away, tasting them himself this time. It has been so long since he has tasted anything other than blood. He licks Jungkook’s tears away, dragging his tongue across his cheek to collect them before he kisses him, tasting his saliva and his tears and when he bites his bottom lip his blood too.

He covers his fingers with lube, and Jungkook spreads his legs for him. Taehyung rests his palm against Jungkook’s balls as he slides his fingers up and down between his cheeks, over his hole. He feels it move beneath his touch, trying to entice him further. Taehyung’s face nuzzles into Jungkook’s neck, and as he sinks his fingers inside, he sinks his fangs in too. Jungkook lets out the most broken moan, and it fizzles off into something dreamier when Taehyung releases some of his venom into him.

“More,” Jungkook says. Taehyung does not know if he means his venom or fingers, so he adds a third finger as he injects more venom into him between swallows of his blood. Taehyung has never heard him moan and whimper in such a way; it is usually him who does that.

Jungkook weakly tugs at his shirt, then the waistband of his pants, so Taehyung quickly takes his clothes off, so fast that the slide of his fingers out and into Jungkook feels the same as he has been doing as he fingers him. His heavy cock rests on Jungkook’s stomach as Taehyung licks his bite marks closed. Jungkook is weakly pulling on him still, trying to pull him over him, so Taehyung lets Jungkook put him right where he wants him.

Kneeling before him, with Jungkook’s legs pulled to his chest, Taehyung aligns his cock with Jungkook’s hole. He looks at his blissed-out face as he presses the head against it, then pushes and pushes until it spreads to let him inside. As he slowly sinks in, Jungkook pulls him again. With his neck accessible, Jungkook bites him. And this time, he injects his venom into him too. Taehyung doesn’t know if he sighs or moans or whimpers or whines, but a sound escapes him as everything in him goes softer. All of the hard edges are blurred, nothing is heavy but his limbs when he feels so fuzzy. The warmth around his cock is felt over his whole body. The beautiful sounds Jungkook makes sound even more musical. The scent of Jungkook’s blood is more mouthwatering.

Taehyung pulls his hips back, and he thinks it takes several seconds for him to remember to sink back inside. He kisses him as slowly as he makes love to him, like they have all the time in the world, like the goal is to feel good and be close rather than to come. They breathe into each other's mouths, their breath warm as the bed rocks with their movement.

The blurry edges begin to become more solid again, the sounds and smells fade ever so slightly as the effect of the venom fades. Taehyung leans back to look into Jungkook’s eyes, and he can tell that they are both asking the same thing. Only a second later, their fangs are in each other’s necks. They drink mouthfuls of blood in between releasing more of their venom into their bloodstream, getting drunk off of each other. They let their bloodlust take over, taking and taking and taking as much as they want, and giving just as much venom in return. Taehyung has never felt another’s venom before, and to know it is Jungkook’s makes the effect of it even better. He makes love to him faster, his thrusts causing the headboard to hit against the wall as they moan, as blood drips down their necks when they stop feeding to kiss instead, the taste of their blood mixing together to create a new kind that is them.

“T-Tae,” Jungkook chokes out, the word sounding like he could not remember how to say it. Taehyung understands, because it feels like a feat to figure out how to speak like this, when he is drunk off of Jungkook. “Love–l-love you.”

Taehyung licks Jungkook’s neck, licking the blood dripping there, licking the puncture holes closed, then licking the tears from his cheeks too before kissing him, making him taste himself. “I l-love you,” he eventually manages to choke out. Every part of him is tingling, senses heightened and movements slow, the bond thrumming and vibrating, almost feeling like a physical thing.

A long, drawn out moan is pulled out of him when Jungkook reaches around him, and his finger finds its way between his cheeks. Taehyung slows down the speed of his thrusts just long enough to let Jungkook find where he wants to go, and sinks his finger inside of him. “Darling, oh,” he moans, and another when a second finger joins inside. Every time Taehyung slides his cock out of Jungkook, his fingers are buried deeper in him.

He yelps when he finds himself on his back, and his fledgling pounces. He sinks down onto his cock again, and the position gives him more leverage to finger him. Taehyung spreads his legs as much as he is able to like this, and his back arches off the bed as he loudly moans when Jungkook’s fingers enter him again. He watches Jungkook bounce on his cock as his fingers slam in and out of him. Taehyung cannot even focus on anything to feel – the tightness around his cock, the fingers rubbing his prostate, the warmth of where their bodies touch, the warmth and wholeness of their bond in his chest.

“So pretty, sire,” Jungkook moans. His other hand presses flat against his chest, and he starts to roll his nipple between his finger and thumb. “So beautiful, so perfect for me. So good. Such a good boy.” Taehyung moans such a broken cry, his body trembling, the bond purring just like Jungkook is. Taehyung’s eyes squeeze shut, tears slide down his temples. Jungkook tightens himself around him as his fingers prod in such a good spot. “Such a good boy, sire. My baby. So beautiful and good.” Taehyung’s chest heaves, his hands shaking against Jungkook’s hips. He helps guide him, making him bounce on his cock faster.

He wants to tell Jungkook the same – that he’s good, that he’s beautiful, that he loves him – but it is so hard when he is told such words, when they affect him to the extent that they do. Hearing his fledgling tell him that he is good, it’s–it’s too much. Hearing that his fledgling thinks he is beautiful, that he loves him. That the boy he loves so deeply loves him in return. It is too much, he can’t think, he cannot move, he can only feel the words, feel Jungkook’s body, feel the way his throat begins to ache from the intensity of his moans.

His eyes lock on Jungkook’s, and he looks so pleased. His cheeks are flushed and every breath is a moan, but he looks so happy seeing such reactions from Taehyung, being able to be the one to tell him such things. Jungkook leans down and kisses him. It is wet and messy and wonderful. “I love you, sire. Baby, I love you. You’re so good f-for me. E-Everything I could ever need. You’re everything, I feel so good with you, I f-feel like I’m r-right where I should be with you. Y-You take care of me so well, you–” Taehyung was not expecting his orgasm to hit him, and not with such intensity. He is surprised he does not shake the manor with the strength of his moan, he is surprised he has not completely ceased to exist with the feeling that washes over him, feeling like he will not survive such euphoria. He can feel him empty himself into Jungkook as he cries and moans and whimpers. As Jungkook holds him through it and fingers him and kisses him and whispers to him and rides him and loves him. Taehyung whimpers in oversensitivity as Jungkook continues to ride his cock, using him for his pleasure. Taehyung tries to hold his noises back in case Jungkook might interpret them wrong; he can use him for as long as he likes, until Taehyung cries and begs and pleads and trembles, Jungkook can continue to use him as long as he is making his fledgling feel good.

It only lasts for a second longer though, because Jungkook slams all the way down, and he moans Taehyung’s name for him. The word sounds like a sonnet, like a love letter, like a promise and declaration of love. Jungkook’s cum painting his stomach feels like a mark of his claim, like the warmth of a bath, like he is being painted by him, just like Taehyung has painted him on a canvas so many times before. Taehyung is Jungkook’s canvas, he can do with him as he pleases.

Jungkook collapses down onto him. They sink into the mattress. Taehyung feels Jungkook’s eyelashes flutter against his jaw until they stop and Jungkook’s eyes remain closed.

Taehyung’s close too. It takes several minutes for him to wrap his arms around Jungkook. Even longer until he can say, “I love you, darling,” and longer until Jungkook can say, “I love you, sire,” in return.

They only finally come back into themselves when the sun has fully risen in the sky. Their room is filled with golden light, but that is not the way the moment feels right now. So he reluctantly rolls Jungkook off of him. Jungkook does not even whine, just flops over, looking as boneless as Taehyung feels.

Taehyung stumbles off the bed and crosses the room clumsily. He pulls all of their curtains closed, shrouding the room in darkness. He lights a few of the wax candles on their dresser, and it becomes the only source of light in the room. Warm, flickering illumination to match the warmth of the sleepy moment.

He slides back into bed, and Jungkook cuddles into him. His head rests against his beating heart, his hand on the side of his neck, as if it is another way to claim him and keep him here. Taehyung turns his head and kisses his wrist. He turns his head the other way and kisses the top of his head. “You know you are my world, right?” he whispers into the dark room. “You know you are my life?”

Jungkook tilts his head up to look at him. His eyes, so round and big and dark. “I know,” he says.

Taehyung trails his knuckles down his cheek. “Good,” he whispers. “You should know how important you are to me. You are a part of me, my darling. Irrevocably, as much of myself as I am.”

“I love you, sire,” Jungkook whispers, the last word cracking with the emotion in it. “I love you.”

“I love you, my darling boy,” Taehyung whispers.

Jungkook rests his ear against his heart again. Taehyung can feel Jungkook’s own heartbeat too. He cannot feel his own, but he knows they are in sync. He knows that they always will be, because neither heart will ever stop.

Chapter Text

“Alright, now show me how to send a text.”

Taehyung looks at the home screen on his cellular phone (a screen type that he learned, differing from a lock screen) and studies the apps. He clicks on the one with the message bubble on it, then he looks around again. He believes he is to click on this little notepad in the corner, and he is pleased to find this is all familiar, so he must be doing it correctly.

He types Jungkook’s name into the phone, then he clicks it when it comes up. This is going so well! He knows just what to do next too. He taps the text box (another term he learned) and begins to type.

Taehyung
Hello, my darling. I love you.

Jungkook
that was so good sire!!!!!!! i love you 🖤

“Darling!” Taehyung says, voice and posture lighting up. “You must show me how to draw these little pictures.”

“This smiley face next to the keyboard here. You can scroll through all of them and tap whichever ones you want.”

“Can I only do one?”

Jungkook giggles. “You can do as many as you want.”

Taehyung
My Jungkook, you are my world. 🤎🦇🕯️🩸🫂 

Jungkook
of course those are the ones you use 😭

“Sire, you’re so cute,” Jungkook whines. “God, you’re cute.” Then Taehyung is tackled down onto his back as Jungkook covers him in kisses – something he has done many times since he started teaching him how to use his phone.

“You are cute too, my darling. The cutest boy that has ever lived.” He kisses Jungkook’s lips, slow and sweet. “May I ask you a question?”

“Anything about me is yours to know.”

“Oh,” Taehyung says softly. He brushes his fingers down Jungkook’s cheeks. “It is the same for me, my love. Everything about me is yours. My question is why haven’t you been turning into a bat?”

“Oh,” Jungkook says, his eyes going round. “I guess I forgot I can do that.”

“We have been rather preoccupied,” Taehyung says. “Finding out that our love transcends lifetimes and things of that nature.”

Jungkook laughs. “Realizing that I used to be alive over a hundred years ago does kind of take over other things in your head.”

Jungkook closes his eyes. His eyebrows furrow in concentration, and he gets the sweetest dimples from the expression as well. Then suddenly, there is no longer a human on top of Taehyung, but instead a sweet little bat with the same big, dark eyes as his vampire mate. He looks so silly as he clumsily crawls up his body, dragging his stomach along Taehyung’s until he is lying on his chest. Taehyung slowly sits up while holding Jungkook’s body, but the little bat has dug his claws into his shirt to keep himself stuck there.

Taehyung carefully wraps his hands around him, and Jungkook falls into them. Taehyung brings Jungkook up to eye level. Even though he just looks like a cute little fruit bat, Taehyung can tell that that’s his Jungkook in there.

“Hello, my love,” Taehyung says. He carefully pets his head with his finger. “You really are a little fledgling. My little baby bat.” Jungkook nuzzles his head against Taehyung’s palm, his little body vibrating with his purrs.

Then Jungkook takes off flying with no warning. It is still clumsy as he tries to get the hang of it, zigzagging here and there a little bit as he tries to make his wings sync up. He thankfully does not crash or fall, just flies around looking like a baby bat learning to fly. He makes a trip around the bedroom, then he lands on the bed, and a vampire Jungkook is in front of him again. He’s beaming. Taehyung is so happy that Jungkook somehow has this strange quality, because it clearly makes him quite happy and excited. And it is further confirmed by, “It’s so fun!”

Taehyung kisses him, because he cannot stop himself. “I am happy you enjoy it,” he says. “You are very, very cute as a bat, little fledgling.”

“Do we know why I can do that?”

Taehyung shakes his head. “Namjoon has been unable to find anything about it. We can ask Felix and Chan when they arrive, but I am sure they will be just as surprised as all of us. But as long as you are happy and careful, then it is okay.”

“Okay, show me how to call someone,” Jungkook says, getting right back to business.

Taehyung redirects his attention to his phone to continue being quizzed on the things he has learned. Which is why he knows that he is to click on the phone icon, and tap the name of whomever he would like to call.

“Good!” Jungkook says. “Now how do you search something on the internet?”

This one has been tricky for Taehyung, mostly because he does not know how the internet works and how to interact with it. Jungkook tells him he can search for anything, but Taehyung cannot see how that could be possible.

But still, he clicks on the correct picture on his screen – app, he tells himself in his head, because he needs to learn to call it by its correct name – and taps the search bar as well. Very, very slowly, he types in his inquiry. I would like to search on the internet why my boyfriend is so cute.

He is, of course, tackled onto the bed once more and covered in kisses. “I told you, sire, that you don’t have to talk to the search bar. You don’t have to speak in full sentences or introduce yourself or talk like it’s a human. So what would you say instead?”

Taehyung takes his phone again to reread his query. He guesses, “Would it be something like ‘why is my boyfriend so cute?’”

“Yeah!” Jungkook says excitedly. “Now pretend I want to fiiiind… hmm… pretend I want to make pancakes but I don’t have a recipe.”

Taehyung nods and looks back down at his phone. Hello. My boyfriend would like to make pancakes, but he does not know how. May we have a recipe please?

Taehyung giggles with Jungkook as he’s attacked with kisses, so many sweet ones it manages to take his breath away when he doesn’t need it at all.

– ☾ –

“My little darling, why are you shy?” Taehyung asks as he and Jungkook walk hand in hand to the door after the call of the bell. He can sense Jungkook’s nervousness through the bond, and through the way he is tightly squeezing his hand.

“I dunno,” Jungkook mumbles. “I just–I haven’t met anybody yet, other than our friends, and they don’t really count. And they’re some of your friends, and they’re vampires too, and I’m your fledgling, and you don’t have a nice reputation, so then what are they going to think about it? And–”

“And they will see what a little sweetheart you are and understand why I wanted to have you as mine. And you and Chan are going to be the best of friends, I know it. You remind me of each other, and you will get along very well. He is quite young too – definitely not as young as you, but the youngest of the rest of us – so you will have that in common as well. There is nothing to be nervous about, my love. I promise you.”

Taehyung opens the door to Chan and Felix’s smiling faces, brightening up the winter night. It has been so long since he has seen them. Felix now has long blonde hair that brightens up his golden skin so beautifully, pulling out the darkness of his freckles. His mate has those sweet dimples carved into his cheeks and burgundy smokey makeup on his eyes that suits him so well, and paired with his dark hair, it creates such a contrast to Felix in the loveliest of ways. The two look like the sun and the moon, so different but still always spoken of together.

“Tae-hyung!” Felix shouts before Taehyung can even offer a greeting. He invites himself inside through a hug that he barrels into Taehyung.

Taehyung laughs and hugs him in return, one hand still holding Jungkook’s. “I have told you many times that it is silly to call me hyung. I am everyone’s hyung.” Felix has always been so sweet and polite though, so he knows this will not change – despite him being nearly as old as Taehyung is. He is hugged by Chan next, receiving a few strong pats on the back with it.

“Friends,” Taehyung addresses them, “this is my fledgling and my mate Jungkook. Jungkook, this is Lee Felix and Bang Chan, my friends, and mates to each other.”

“Hi,” Jungkook says shyly with the smallest of bows. Taehyung holds back his coo, but he is sure Jungkook can feel his endearment through the bond.

His Jungkook is so energetic and bold and confident, so to remember how he once was – this shy, sweet little thing – is very sweet to behold. It is not mere shyness anymore though, Taehyung notices. His discomfort is very strong through the bond, so his anxiousness must not be subsiding. Taehyung is not entirely sure why, because he hopes Jungkook knows that he would never let others around him if he was not entirely certain that he is safe in their presence. Even protected in their presence, because they would fight for him if need be, no questions asked.

But still, he can see how it might be intimidating to meet older vampires, so he says quietly, “Would you like to shift, my darling?”

Jungkook’s eyes are wide, just like his little bat’s. “You mean…?”

Taehyung nods. “If you would like to, of course you may. You may at any time. You do not need my permission.” His eyes quickly flit to Chan and Felix before locking on his own again, still looking unsure. “Go ahead, little fledgling.”

Taehyung laughs hearing the gasp and the scream that comes from their two guests when Jungkook is no longer there, and a bat is hovering in his place. Taehyung sticks his finger out, and Jungkook does a very silly move of somersaulting in the air to hook his feet on his finger and hang upside down. (Definitely done to show off, as proven by the way he looks at Taehyung to make sure he saw, and elicits purrs when he says, “That was very impressive, my little bat.”)

Taehyung looks over to his friends, who have the most amusing looks of shock and confusion on their faces. “That’s…?” Felix finally says.

Taehyung nods. “Jungkook is able to turn into a bat.”

Chan and Felix glance at each other, incredulous. “Why?” Chan asks.

Taehyung shrugs. “We do not know. It just happened one day, and we have been unable to find out anything about it, or any records of vampires doing so – outside of humans’ fictional writing. I am guessing you have never seen it before then?” Felix and Chan shake their heads wordlessly, looking down at Jungkook, who is just hanging upside down with his wings wrapped around himself. “It remains a mystery then. You can follow me, and I will lead you to your living quarters for your visit.”

“How are you so calm about that?!” Felix says as they follow after him.

Taehyung shrugs. He glances down at Jungkook, who is watching him from upside down with his big eyes. Taehyung can feel his contentment through the bond, and none of the nerves from before. “He enjoys it, and I am happy when he is happy, and he is very cute. His happiness and wellbeing matter most to me, and neither of those seem to be threatened, so I count it as a small blessing that it is another way for him to have fun.”

Felix and Chan continue to send him a bombardment of questions on the rest of their walk, most of which Taehyung does not have the answers to. He means it, that if Jungkook is happy and safe and not in a panicked rush to understand, then it is okay with him. They have their kind’s greatest scholar, researcher, and archivist living in the same home as them, and if he cannot find anything on it, then Taehyung does not have faith that whatever they are looking for exists at all.

“I am sure the both of you have many more questions,” Taehyung says when they arrive at their bedroom, “and I will be happy to answer them, but I assume you two would like to settle in after your travels. You may take all the time that you wish, and do whatever you’d like. You know everyone who lives here, of course, and our home is your home during this stay. Please let any of us know if there is something you need.” He leaves with vague thank yous from them as they still remain in confused disbelief.

He walks out of their bedroom and closes the door behind him, then he walks through the guest wing of the manor. As they walk, Jungkook unhooks his toes from around his finger and begins to fly. He darts down the hallway, then he does a graceful flip in the air and flies back toward Taehyung. He hovers in front of his face, just to make sure he saw his trick. “That was very impressive, my darling,” Taehyung says. “You have gotten very good at flying. You are better than even a normal bat.” It causes Jungkook to excitedly fly through the air again, soaring through the manor as Taehyung continues walking.

“Oh, hey,” Yoongi says when he appears from down one of the other halls. “I was looking for you.”

“Is there something I can assist you with?”

“No, but I, uh, made these for you…” He holds something out. Taehyung takes them. “They’re, uh, necklaces. I made them out of leather, and the part at the front is a little thicker. For, you know, Jungkook to be able to hang from comfortably, if he doesn’t feel like flying.”

“Oh,” Taehyung says, looking down at them in his hand. They’re made of the softest leather, braided intricately before the braiding stops to give way to a little shelf of sorts, as if it were a branch for a bat to hang from. Upon further inspection, Taehyung sees that stamped into the leather, so subtly he wouldn’t notice if he weren’t a vampire, is TH on one side and JK on the other. One is black and one is brown, so he will have one that matches any outfit he is wearing.

Taehyung is not a good man. He has done countless horrible, unforgivable things in his life. Even one of them is by far bad enough to not deserve even the smallest part of the life he now has, let alone everything. He does not deserve this. He does not deserve Yoongi’s love and care; he does not deserve someone who is so quietly caring and kind to him, someone who is always there for him.

But he does not want to get into all of that right now, so he swallows the lump in his throat and finally looks up at his friend. “Thank you, Yoongi,” he says. “This is so kind and thoughtful, and so beautifully crafted too. Thank you. And I'm sure Jungkook says thank you too. Can you come here, darling?” Jungkook has been doing acrobats down the long manor hallway, flying to his heart’s content. Taehyung can’t even imagine what it will be like when he flies outside. He is extremely nervous for that, he realizes, so they will talk about it some other time.

Jungkook flies back to him as Taehyung fits the dark brown leather necklace over his head. He holds the front out, and Jungkook immediately gets the idea. He wraps his feet around it and lets his body fall so he is hanging upside down. Taehyung gently brings the necklace back toward his body, and lets go when Jungkook is resting against his heart. It’s so perfect, perfect for Jungkook to hang comfortably from, and gentle on his own neck too even with the added weight of his cute little necklace charm.

“This is so wonderful, Yoongi,” Taehyung says. He isn’t sure he will ever get over how touching and thoughtful this is. “Thank you so much.”

“Ah, you’re welcome,” he says quietly, bashfully. “Have a good night.”

“You too,” Taehyung chuckles, letting him escape shyly. He looks down, and it is so adorable seeing Jungkook hanging there peacefully. Taehyung heads toward their room, and even walking is comfortable. It does not jostle Jungkook’s body; he’s hanging sturdily against his heart. Taehyung never really gave much thought to bats before. He doesn’t think there are any others as cute as Jungkook, but he is definitely biased.

They arrive back at their bedroom. Jungkook lets go of his perch and begins to fly, but just enough to land on their bed when he is back in his vampire form.

Taehyung sits beside him, and he squeezes his thigh. “Hello again, my love.”

“Hi,” Jungkook says quietly, not looking in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Taehyung asks softly.

“I’m sorry for being weird earlier…” he says, fidgeting with the fabric of his pants. “I probably made a bad first impression on them…”

“Hey,” Taehyung says. He pulls Jungkook into his arms, and Jungkook falls willingly. Taehyung kisses the top of his head, everything in him warming as Jungkook cuddles into him, finding comfort in him. His little fledgling finding safety in his sire makes Taehyung feel like he is doing something right. “You do not need to apologize, my darling. It is okay to feel shy or uncomfortable or nervous when meeting new people, especially new vampires when you are a new vampire. And even so, you were not being weird, and you did not make a bad impression. Even if you had, they would have immediately forgotten all about it when seeing you turn into a bat. Would you like me to send them home, darling? You matter the most to me.”

“No!” Jungkook says. “You don’t have to do that. They seemed nice… Just–shy.” He shrugs weakly while still slumped in Taehyung’s arms.

“That is okay, my darling. You can take all the time you need to warm up to them.”

– ☾ –

And it just so happens that it does not take long at all. Just a few hours.

Jungkook wanted to go to the game room to grab one of his portable consoles, but while there, he ran into Chan, who was playing a game with Jimin. And he did not come back to their bedroom. Taehyung could hear them from there, so he let them be and sought out Felix, who was in the living room with Hoseok.

“Hello,” Taehyung says, sitting in the chair beside the couch.

“So,” Felix says without any greeting, his voice deep but his tone light, “you have a fledgling. And a boyfriend too.”

“I do,” Taehyung says.

“Wow,” Felix says. “In all the decades I’ve known you, you shut down any conversation about finding a mate before I could even fully get the words out.”

Taehyung does not get into why that is, because he does not know how to explain him and Jungkook. He does not really want to either. His best friends know, and that is enough.

Hoseok’s eyes glimmer with unshed tears at the mention of it though, even more when Taehyung says simply, “Jungkook is special.”

“In more ways than one too,” Felix says. It is true, but Taehyung does not know what he means, so he tilts his head to the side in question. “He can turn into a bat!” Felix shouts.

“Ah, yes,” Taehyung says. “He can.”

“How are you so calm about it?!” Felix asks incredulously. Taehyung shrugs. Before he can even answer, Felix says, “God, you’re so different. Shrugging!” He looks at Hoseok, and Hoseok nods. Did Taehyung not shrug before? He supposes he did not, but he isn’t sure why that is a big deal. “You’re just so… you’re so chill. You’re so much more casual, and–and open and friendlier, and, god, you’re just really different. In a good way!”

Taehyung does not see how he was able to show any friendliness thus far, but he supposes the fact that he even warmly greeted them at the door is enough to make them raise their eyebrows. Goodness, he must have been some type of devil before. Not even that – there was not enough life in him for that. Just a void.

“Well, like I said,” Taehyung says, “Jungkook is special. And to your question, I am calm about this because of him. He accepted it easily and has a lot of fun with it, so I did the same. It does not seem like we will find an answer to the mystery anytime soon, so I don’t think we should have to stress about it in the meantime.”

Felix looks to Hoseok again, who says, “I know, right?” Alright, Taehyung doesn’t think he is that different. But maybe it is because he has already partially fallen back into who he used to be, and the long, long middle between losing Jungkook and loving him again just felt like a nightmare that has already begun to fade from his memory now that he’s woken up again.

He sees movement out of the corner of his eye, and he holds his hand out just in time for it to be used as a landing pad. Jungkook flops onto his stomach, looking up at him with those big eyes. Taehyung brings him closer, and he carefully kisses the top of his little head. Jungkook nuzzles against his palm while making a cute little chirping sound, which Taehyung takes to mean that he wants more. He seems to be correct, because as he places more gentle kisses on the top of Jungkook’s head, he begins to purr.

Jungkook takes flight again. He hovers in front of him for a moment, just long enough to touch the tips of their noses together, then he flies away, back to the game room. Taehyung can hear him turn back into a human right when he enters, so he just wanted to be a bat around Taehyung – maybe because of the way he can be held like that.

With a soft smile still on his face, he looks back at the others. Felix still looks a little freaked out, but they mostly look happy for their friend.

“How did you and Jungkook meet?” Felix asks.

Taehyung sighs while Hoseok cackles. “Well…”

– ☾ –

“You didn’t care that someone was stalking you?!” Felix asks Jungkook, who joined them with Chan in the middle of their tale. Jungkook is completely comfortable now, leaning against Taehyung as they talk, seeking out comfort from his sire in a way that makes Taehyung burn with protectiveness.

“No,” Jungkook says simply. There is obviously much more to the story that is unspoken, but before they even knew that part, Jungkook still didn’t care. The strange little fledgling that he is.

Once the others are engaged in conversation amongst themselves, Taehyung asks, “Are you tired, my love?” It has been a long day for Jungkook, and Taehyung can tell he would like some alone time.

“Yeah, a little,” Jungkook says quietly.

Taehyung kisses his forehead. “Alright then,” he says. Then to everybody, “Jungkook and I are going to retire to our living quarters. We will see you all tomorrow.”

They all bid each other a goodnight (or good morning, technically), then Jungkook shifts and finds his way to Taehyung’s necklace. He hangs right against his heart, wanting his sire to carry him the long, long way across the manor. Taehyung looks down, seeing Jungkook hanging upside down with his wings wrapped around him, his eyes closed.

Somehow, for some reason, it makes sense that of all vampires, Jungkook was the one to be able to shift into a bat. Something about it just makes sense for his cute, silly fledgling.

They arrive back at their room, and Jungkook flies to the bed and lands on it as a vampire. “You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Taehyung says now that his fledgling has remembered he is able to do this.

“Yeah,” is all Jungkook says as he yawns.

“Let’s get you out of these clothes,” Taehyung says. Jungkook always wears clothes comfortable enough to sleep in, but he wants to be close to Jungkook tonight.

Jungkook lifts his arms, making Taehyung do all the work even if that had not been his sire’s intention to begin with. Taehyung pulls Jungkook’s shirt up. He imagines the skin that is being revealed covered in tattoos. He had never given much thought to tattoos, but imagining them on Jungkook?

He clears his throat and drops to his knees. Not to do anything about his increasingly salacious thoughts, but to pull the drawstring of Jungkook’s sweatpants and take them off along with his socks, leaving him just in his boxer briefs. “You too?” Jungkook asks softly. Not to undress him, but for Taehyung to undress himself. His silly boy.

Jungkook’s eyes stay on him the whole time he undresses, taking their time to admire every new part that is revealed.

“You’re really pretty, sire,” Jungkook says softly, sleepily.

“Oh,” Taehyung says, feeling his chest is flushing. “W-Well, thank you, darling. You are very sweet.”

“Really pretty,” Jungkook says. “Like, very genuinely the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. It’s kind of scary how beautiful you are. Do you know how beautiful you are?”

“U-Um, well, I mean,” Taehyung stammers. He realizes he froze, so he continues taking his pants off. “I would not say it is scary, or that I am the most beautiful person by any means.”

“You are,” Jungkook says with a lot of certainty in his tone. Taehyung does not respond, because he isn’t sure how. He just finishes silently undressing, feeling the weight of Jungkook’s stare on him. He finally slides into bed, and he is pulled into his fledgling’s arms with a, “Come here, baby,” that makes him absolutely melt.

He indulgently cuddles into Jungkook. The warmth he physically feels when their skin touches could still bring tears to his eyes. The warmth he feels in his chest has always been there, from the moment Jungkook was turned. It was as if the ashes of it still lingered there when Jungkook died before it was lit once again. Taehyung rests his cheek against Jungkook’s chest, nuzzling as he rests his leg over him too, wanting to get as close as he can. Jungkook kisses his forehead.

“I love you, baby,” Jungkook says quietly, kissing his forehead again.

Taehyung sighs in bliss. Jungkook has not called him that lately, probably because he had been leaning on his sire so much as a young fledgling that that part of things got pushed to the background. It feels so wonderful to hear that again. To be reminded that he is Jungkook’s sire, but he’s his baby too.

“I love you, Jungkook-ah,” Taehyung says. His hand rests on Jungkook’s heart, feeling it beat in sync with his own.

“Chan and Felix are nice. I like them.”

“Good,” Taehyung says. “I like them too, and I know they like you too. I am happy you feel more comfortable with them. Would you like me to be with you when Chan teaches you to tattoo?”

“I don’t think you have to be…” he says shyly. “I don’t feel nervous about any of it anymore. It was just meeting new people… You can if you want though! I always want you with me. But if you aren’t, I think I’ll be okay, and if I’m not, I can just go find you.”

“I will have found you first, because I would be able to feel if you aren’t okay.”

“Do you like the bond?”

“I do,” Taehyung says. He focuses on it, that feeling of comfort curled up in his chest, as real as Jungkook’s arms around him. “I like being able to feel you even if you are not with me. I enjoy being able to feel how you are feeling so I can make sure you are okay, but I mostly just like being able to feel you. Just that you are there.” He tilts his head up to look at Jungkook. “Do you like the bond?”

“Yeah,” Jungkook says. “I don’t want it to ever go away.” He sounds so scared when he says it. Taehyung didn’t know this was something he has clearly been thinking about.

Taehyung cannot be certain, and he won’t make a promise, but he says, “It won’t.” And he means that, because he believes it. He does not think it will go away. It does not even feel like something he should hope or wish for, because he believes it is as ingrained in him as his DNA is. It is just a part of him that cannot be taken.

“I don’t think it will either,” Jungkook says. He twirls the streak of grey in Taehyung’s hair around his finger like he often does, then he tucks it behind his ear. Taehyung had never given much thought to the way his age shows on him – the grey in his hair, the shallow lines in his face – but if he had ever felt badly about any of it, it would have been long gone by now because of how often Jungkook voices his love for all of these different things.

“So beautiful,” Jungkook whispers now. He kisses him in a way that makes Taehyung feel beautiful. When he rests his head back down, he holds him in a way that makes him feel loved.

“Do you have any fears, darling?” That one felt so loud in just the sentence, and he wants to put any fears he has to rest if he has the ability to. And if he cannot, he would still find a way for his Jungkook. The silence feels thicker. Taehyung tilts his head up to look at him, because he knows there are things he isn’t saying. “You can tell me anything, Jungkook-ah. Anything at all, but you can also keep anything at all to yourself too. You do not have to tell me if you would like to keep it with you.”

Jungkook bites the inside of his cheek. He doesn’t look at him when he says, “I’m afraid of y-you, I dunno, g-getting sick of me and sending me away, or finding someone else.”

Taehyung’s lips part. It takes him a few moments to find his words. “My darling,” he says softly. “How could you think that? Sweetheart, I lived over a century without you and never moved on, and I would have lived another, if I had not found a way to make it all end before it. I would wait hundreds more if it meant you would be at the end of the long wait. You have been my one and only, darling. You always will be. Never will there ever be anyone but you. You are my whole entire universe, Jungkook. My life revolves around you. I have been reduced down to just a being that is here to love and take care of you, and I relish in it. It feels like the greatest of gifts. I will never, ever get sick of you, and the idea of finding someone else is so–so outrageous that I do not even know how to speak on a topic that is so impossible. I–I will try to show my love for you more, darling. I will try–”

“Tae, baby, sire, no,” Jungkook rushes to say. “You–you’re perfect, Tae. You’re perfect. You don’t have to try to do anything more. I don’t even know how you could. It’s just–it’s not anything to do with you. Just me being silly.”

“How you feel is not silly,” Taehyung says.

“It’s not because you’re doing anything wrong, or there’s anything you could do better,” he says softly. “It’s just–you seem too good to be true. All of this. Even before we knew about us. When I was just a homeless guy sleeping outside. It all seems too perfect to be real, and now I get you with it? Like this? In my arms? I think I’d have to be crazy, or way too confident, to not be scared of it ending.”

Taehyung can understand that. It all does seem too good to be true. But he knows with certainty that this time is it. This is permanent now, this is their life, and nothing will take it away. And he does not even feel nervous to declare that, like now that he did so, something horrible will happen. He knows it will not. He knows their life will be like this for eternity. Jungkook asks him too, “Are you scared of anything?”

Taehyung had never feared anything before meeting Jungkook, either times. Nothing has ever been so precious in his life. He thinks that if it were to happen again, there would be no coming back from it. He would lie in the sun for years if that was what it took to die, he’d revel in years of burning if it took away the pain inside of him, if at the end of it he no longer had to live in a world without Jungkook. He would shove a stake through his own heart, he would find a way to sever his head, he would do anything to leave a world that no longer had Jungkook in it. Any pain he would put himself through would seem like a reprieve from what he felt before, and how much worse he would feel it again.

So yes, he will always be scared that something will go wrong. He knows it will not, but that fear will not leave him, not when he has been given something so precious, not when he’s been given the physical manifestation of love, and this perfect boy loves him back.

He says simply though, “I am afraid to lose you.” Then to lighten the mood, “And I am afraid of lizards, bees, mice, and heights. And ghosts. Which could be real, since we are real, so stranger things have happened.”

It effectively lightens the mood, because Jungkook laughs until tears come to his eyes, rattling Taehyung with the movement as he lies on top of him. “Tae, you’re a vampire! And you’re scared of things like that?!”

“I am,” Taehyung giggles.

Then suddenly completely sobered up, “Do you think ghosts are actually real…?”

Taehyung holds in his laugh because of how serious it got. “I personally do not think they are, but some of the supernatural clearly holds some truth, so.” He shrugs. He tilts his head up to look at his fledgling. “Do you think so?”

“I dunno,” he says nervously. “I didn’t before, but now… I–I think probably not. But I am not sure about that enough to make them mad.” Taehyung sighs. His cute fledgling. “What other supernatural stuff do you think is real? Fairies? Mermaids?” Taehyung kisses Jungkook’s cheek and rests his head back down. His entire body becomes an atrium for butterflies when Jungkook says, “I love you, baby.”

“I love you too,” Taehyung says softly, a little shyly. “I am not entirely certain that anything else is real, but I think the things that have the highest chances aaaare… hm… perhaps fairies.”

“What about dragons?”

“I think it is possible that they once existed, but long ago. What do you think?”

“I think dragons were probably real, and maybe mermaids, but not anymore. And I could believe fairies.”

Taehyung tilts his head up to look at him. “When did you learn of vampires?” he asks.

“Pretty close to when you found me again. I’d moved to a different part of the city, and I was walking around late at night to try to scope out places to sleep and get familiar with where different shelters are.” The thought of that makes Taehyung’s heart ache so horribly. He realizes, though, that he and Jungkook had been wandering the same city at night. Maybe mere blocks had only stood between them at one time. He wonders if he could feel it, the way Jungkook was getting near. “I passed someone attacking someone else in an alley, pretty similar to how you found me when you turned me. I kind of connected the dots, and yeah.” He shrugs. “I wonder if part of why I didn’t freak out had something to do with you, like deep down I already knew we were real, but I don’t know.”

“Even back then,” Taehyung says, “a century ago when you didn’t already know, you accepted it strangely easily, so I think you are just a strange little sweetheart.” Jungkook shrugs, and the kiss against his forehead has a smile to it. Quietly, a little vulnerably, Taehyung asks, “Can you tell me a memory you have?” He does not know why that makes him feel so vulnerable. Perhaps because Jungkook has known him for so long, has seen every part of him, and it is sometimes overwhelming to be seen so closely, to be laid so bare.

“Give me a season.”

Taehyung looks up at him. “Hm?”

“A season. Tell me one and I’ll pick a memory from there.”

His precious Jungkook. “I want one from each of them. Starting with winter, since it is where we are now.”

“I can do that,” Jungkook says. His arms tighten around Taehyung as he begins to think. The warmth, the protectiveness, it is too much. Taehyung went so long being his own protector, and it is such a relieving feeling to know that he isn’t the only one. He knows he has his best friends who would do anything for him in any way, but having a lover that way is different, and strange. And very, very wonderful. “You have to tell me your own memories like this tomorrow then.”

“I will,” Taehyung says. “And we have so, so many more tomorrows. Enough of them that we can share every single memory we have, and by the time we get to the end, it will be so long that we can start at the beginning of our new ones.”

Jungkook tilts his head up for him with a finger beneath his chin. It makes Taehyung’s heartbeat stutter seeing the way Jungkook looks at him. He does not deserve this tenderness, but he will be selfish and take it, revel in it. “I want forever with you,” Jungkook says softly. And to be desired this way, to be wanted forever, is a feeling he cannot describe.

“You may have it,” he says. The kiss they share feels like a promise.

“Can we go light the fireplace and lay in front of it?”

“Whatever your heart desires is yours.”

They get out of bed, and Taehyung crosses the room to the ornate fireplace. It is quite big, with the mantle aligning with his shoulders when he stands before it. The exterior is black stone with intricate curling designs sculpted into it. Beside it is a small cradle of firewood, covered in dust at this point because he cannot remember when he last lit a fire. He begins placing the kindling into the hearth, then he takes a match from his ornamented matchbox. He throws the lit match onto the kindling and watches as it slowly gathers a growing flame.

“Are we flammable?” Jungkook asks as he collects their pillows and blankets.

“As much as any humans are,” Taehyung says. “But we are not particularly flammable as vampires, no. Just through the sun, not through fire itself.” He helps Jungkook arrange their pillows and fluffy duvet on the floor to create a comfortable little space to lay together in front of the fire.

Instead of cuddling, they lie on their stomachs across from each other. The curtains in their bedroom are open, because dawn has not yet come. The moon and the stars remain in the sky as snow gently flutters down beneath them. It is a beautiful background to the moment, with the dark room and the crackling fire. Jungkook takes his hand to mindlessly play with as he flits through memories in his head.

By his mischievous little smile, Taehyung can tell that this is a story that he specially looked for that is probably somehow a way to tease Taehyung.

“It was your birthday,” Jungkook starts. But it gives Taehyung a moment of realization.

“Do… d-do you know my birthday?” he asks.

It makes Jungkook realize as well. “I do.”

Taehyung’s lips part. “When is it?” he asks.

It does not change anything. But it’s just–it is a part of him that he had forgotten. It is a date that means something, it is his day. He would not even know that it was in the winter if not for a memory from the requested season. Jungkook’s lips stretch into a smile. “I’ll tell you if you want, but can I not tell you and surprise you that day?”

“Yes, if you would like,” Taehyung tells his sweet boy. He feels a pang of excitement, and it is such a strange sensation. His birthday. He will know when his birthday is, and he will be celebrated. It has come and gone for over a century, and for a long, long time before the time he and Jungkook spent together.

“Okay, you’ll know soon. It was your birthday a long time ago then. The first one you’d celebrated for a while. And you didn’t know it was your birthday, not because you’d forgotten what day your birthday was, but because you didn’t know what date that day was. And I told you to leave the house, and you got soooooooooooo pouty.”

Taehyung blushes in embarrassment as he laughs. He is not lying. It is silly to think about, how just before he’d met Jungkook, he had been feral and murderous. And then Jungkook reduced him to such a pouty lovesick little thing.

He and Jungkook often went on a nightly walk – same as they sometimes do now, and surely will continue to do again soon when they can manage to put off their cuddling and reuniting and carry on with their lives. They did not go often in winter back then since Jungkook could feel the cold, but he insisted on wanting to go because he liked seeing the fresh snow before their town awoke again and left their marks of life in it.

“Are you ready to go, darling?” Taehyung asked that night after the sun had almost completely set. He held Jungkook’s scarf, ready to wrap it around him before putting his coat and gloves on him too.

Jungkook was puttering around their little apartment. He was giving the illusion that he was cleaning, but he wasn’t, really. He was picking some things up and putting them back down, or pushing in a chair at their dining table and finding it was already pushed in all the way, or opening and closing a few cabinets. “I don’t want to go tonight,” he said.

Taehyung hung his scarf back up on the hook and said, “Okay, that’s okay. More cuddling time.”

He crossed the apartment to hug Jungkook from behind as he stood in front of the sink, but he stopped when Jungkook said, “No, you should still go.”

Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows. “But you’re not going,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“So I want to be with you.”

“I just–sometimes we spend too much time together, don’t you think? It might be nice to take a walk on your own. Take a break from each other.”

“That was so mean!” Taehyung says as they lay in front of the fire.

“I know,” Jungkook whines. He moves closer and takes a hold of Taehyung’s chin. He places kiss after kiss on Taehyung’s lips, trying to make up for it. So many kisses that Taehyung’s lips tingle by the time he is done. “I’m sorry,” he says, then he starts all over again, this time dancing kisses all over Taehyung’s face as Taehyung smiles and giggles. He forgave him immediately when he saw what his angle was, but he won’t say no to kisses from his fledgling. “I just knew that you wouldn’t leave unless I made you a little mad at me. If I said that maybe you’d like alone time you’d insist that you didn’t, or if I said I wasn’t feeling well it’d keep you there even more, so nothing else would have worked.”

He is correct, but still.

“Well, if that is what you think, then fine,” Taehyung said, and he stormed out of their apartment with a slam of the door.

The topic of turning Jungkook had not even come up yet really, at least not in any serious sense, so hearing that with the knowledge that their time was limited (and in a way they did not even know of yet) stung. He tried to tell himself that Jungkook did not know what a lifetime was like, and that he felt that they had a long time together when it would really go by so quickly for someone as old as Taehyung.

He spent the entire walk brooding before it faded off into sadness. The snow was violently crunched down at the start of his walk, but it soon showed light footsteps as he felt so small, like he wanted to be swallowed up by the world.

Just–why would Jungkook want a break from him? They are already separated by the day when he has to work, and Taehyung can’t join him both because of the sunlight and because the horses always panicked when he was near. There were many hours they were separated, and he wanted to spend the ones they got to be together apart too? Take a break from each other. They did that every single day! Sometimes we spend too much time together, don’t you think? No, he did not think that. He would spend every second of every day with Jungkook if he could. He knows that is unreasonable, and it makes perfect sense why others would not want that, but–why didn’t Jungkook? What is it about him that makes Jungkook want a break from him? He only realized he was crying when he felt the tears start to freeze on his face from the cold winter night, so he wiped away each one when it came.

He eventually circled back around town a few hours later. He walked beneath the tunnel of trees that leads to and from their little village. He walked through their small town square, past closed merchant shops and around the frozen fountain at the center of it all. He saw from across the way that their little window atop the horse stable was dark, so Jungkook must have gotten in bed. It was the middle of the night, but he didn’t wait up for him? They’d never gone to sleep without a goodnight kiss. They’d never gone to sleep out of each other’s arms from the night they became who they are now.

He did not know what he did wrong… He knows he can be intense and passionate and definitely clingy, but he just–he doesn’t know. He loves Jungkook more than anything in the entire world, and it just–it hurt to not be wanted, even if just for a night.

He walked up the creaky wooden steps as lightly as he could, not wanting to wake Jungkook from his slumber since he worked so hard during the day. He carefully creaked the door open. He took off his boots so he did not track any snow inside, so it took him a moment to see their apartment. And when he did, his breath got caught in his throat.

Standing in the middle of their apartment, illuminated by flickering tea candles, was Jungkook, holding a candle himself. “Happy birthday, Tae,” he said quietly. Taehyung felt frozen.

He looked around their apartment, and it was decorated. There were streamers made of cut out paper stars scalloped from the ceiling. Their apartment was not very big, just a single room, really. Their bed was against one wall, in front of the window that overlooked their village. A small kitchen was along another wall, with a small table in the center of the room. Because their home was so small, it made their love feel so big. It made everything feel cozy and safe, and living in such a modest place made the effort of the decorations feel even more meaningful. There were flowers on almost every available surface, making it look like they were in a star-lit garden. The twinkling of the candles shadowed on the stars above made it really feel that way.

And he noticed there was a trail of rose petals, leading from the door right to Jungkook. He followed it.

“You don’t eat cake, so I couldn’t bake you anything,” Jungkook said, watching him come nearer. “But you have me.” Taehyung arrived in front of him, seeing the way his face was illuminated by the light, the way it lit up his dark eyes. “Make a wish,” he whispered.

Taehyung swallowed. He could not say anything. He could barely think. Finally, though, the one thing he has ever wanted appears. Something he was so desperate for, that it was all he could ever wish for.

Somehow, in some way, I want to spend forever with Jungkook.

He blew out the candle, hoping that anything could hear him to make it come true.

He melted into Jungkook’s arms when he hugged him. “I’m sorry for sending you away,” Jungkook said. “I needed to be able to decorate.”

Taehyung had already forgotten about all of it. The way he was feeling, the spiraling thoughts he was having, they all disappeared. He knew he was loved, that he was loved more than he had ever been before.

“You were so sweet to me when we made love that night,” Taehyung says, seeing it all so clearly in his head. Jungkook does not even tease him for using that phrase this time, because it is all that that night can be called. He was so careful with him, so tender.

Taehyung does not know when his birthday is, but he hopes it will be the same as that night.

They reminisce about the rainy spring that followed. How they climbed onto their roof and laid there to watch the stars on the dry nights. How Jungkook said he wanted to jump off the roof so Taehyung could catch him from down there, and how much Taehyung begged him not to until Jungkook threw himself off and gave him no choice. They talk about their summers at the hidden lake, and wonder if it is still there. It brings them back to their first fall together, and how it was not too different from their first fall together this time around. Trying to tame a vampire, although Jungkook was much, much better behaved than Taehyung was. They linger on that one longer than the others, because Taehyung does not remember much of those initial meetings. He wishes desperately that he did, but it feels like it is only fair when Taehyung spent so long watching Jungkook without his knowledge that he should get some of those moments in return.

“You don’t remember all of those times?” Jungkook asks. He has been running his finger up and down Taehyung’s forearm absentmindedly in a way that has made Taehyung have to fight to focus on the things he is saying. “When you’d go, like, in and out of consciousness?”

Taehyung shakes his head. “No,” he says. “I think even when I was more lucid, I was still too tied to how I was when I wasn't, that I can’t remember things until I was finally freed.” Reluctantly, he asks, “Will you tell me what those first few days were like?”

“I will as long as you don’t beat yourself up about it,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung wryly smiles. “I will try.”

“I wish I could ask you why you didn’t kill me when you saw me,” he says. “Why you just stopped and stared at me. If you’d been killing everyone you saw and had been feeding from them, why didn’t you do that with me?”

Taehyung does not know the answer either. But he suspects it has something to do with, “Your eyes.”

Jungkook’s eyebrows furrow. “My eyes?”

Taehyung nods. He is not even saying it to be romantic when he says, “Your eyes have always captivated me, my darling. I think I saw them and something made me pause. I think I saw them and did not want to be the reason why the light went out of them. I think I saw them and kept coming back to see you again.”

“O-Oh,” Jungkook says. “Well, you did stare at me a lot, so maybe…”

“Darling, did you really not fear me? I know you were curious, but how did that outweigh your fear? Your–your survival instincts?”

Jungkook weakly shrugs. “I dunno… I think up until I had you, both times, I just… didn’t have a lot to live for. Like no matter what ever happened, if I ended up randomly dying, then okay.” He weakly shrugs again. “I didn’t have any parents or family the first time around, which is funny considering…” He did have a family the second time, and they were unkind, so he wonders how that works if the first time he did not know any. “And I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t have time to make any, because I was so poor that I had to work all day every day to just be able to afford where I lived. Back then and more recently, anything was probably better than what I had, so maybe there was the possibility of something good happening to change it all, or maybe I’d die, and that was fine too.” Taehyung’s heart aches. “But something really, really good did happen,” he says softly, lightening the conversation effectively.

“Yes, I suppose so,” Taehyung says. He brings Jungkook’s hand to his lips for a kiss.

“But it’s why I wasn’t scared when I saw you and figured out what you were,” he says. “And why I approached you. Because it was weird and interesting and I wanted to know more, and if you killed me, then okay. But you didn’t.” That is debatable both times they loved each other, but he does not want to bring the mood down again, so he does not mention it. “And you were cute.”

Taehyung very indelicately snorts. “My darling, I know for a fact that I was not cute. I had certainly not bathed in a long time, my clothes were probably terribly disgusting, and I most likely was covered in blood – and who knows how old the blood stains were on top of it all.”

“Yes, and you were still cute,” he insists. “It was weird, you were like a creature instead of a human.”

Taehyung snorts again. “Well, that is true.”

Jungkook chuckles. “Yeah, but, I dunno. It was like talking to an animal or something. Like I had to speak slowly and softly, and you looked like you kind of understood what I was doing or saying sometimes, but you mostly didn’t. Like I’d say, ‘Do you want to come to my house?’ and it was like you had a question mark above your head, like when a dog tilts their head to the side when they’re confused. And then I’d make arm movements and speak slowly, like I’d make my hands into a pillow and close my eyes to say sleep or bed, and things like that, and it started to click. It was like we were speaking a different language, because you weren’t all there. It was really cute.”

Taehyung sighs and shakes his head. He was such a monster that all of his humanity had left him – even the basic functions like hearing or speaking or any type of comprehension – and it was ‘cute.’

“Tell me about your first memory of us,” Jungkook says. There’s a smirk on his face when he says it, and it pulls a whine out of Taehyung. Taehyung knows that Jungkook knows this, but he thinks this is cute too, when it is very embarrassing for Taehyung. Jungkook has always known just the ways to make him feel less like an ancient vampire and more like a vulnerable little human in the best way.

Taehyung sighs. “It was a long time before we actually spoke,” he finally says.

He remembers it clearly. He remembers bits and pieces here and there, the way it almost felt like he was underwater and looking up at the surface. The way the water shimmers and distorts one’s vision. How sometimes when he got to the surface, or the few occasions he would fully breach into the air before sinking again. Sometimes the shapes would be clearer than others, or it remained this wavy, strange mirage. He remembers different shapes and colors that tried to define themselves, but he kept being pulled back to who he was when he was stronger than Jungkook, who was trying to pull him into who he would become.

And maybe… maybe Jungkook was the one pulling him into who he was. Maybe all of that time before and after him, a monster was pulling him away from himself. Maybe who he is with Jungkook is who he truly is, and sometimes he gets lost.

He thinks that is being far too kind though. He thinks maybe Jungkook’s optimism is beginning to cloud his own judgment.

“My first memory of you was in the middle of town, beside the fountain, where we first met and would meet every night. It was kind of scary… I’d been not myself for so long, and suddenly everything was different. The way villages looked. Architecture. Clothing. Even the way of speaking was different. I do not even truly know how many decades had passed, and it was disorienting.

“But even more disorienting than that was this boy standing in front of me. Looking at me and talking to me and alive. And talking with so much familiarity too, like we were old friends. It’s like I woke up in the middle of a conversation that I did not know I was a part of. You were just talking away, and I realized both through the way you were talking and brief moments of lucidity that you had been doing this for a while – both that night, and in general.

“God, it was so strange,” he chuckles, seeing it all in his head again. “Suddenly I was standing in this town I did not recognize, in front of a boy I did not recognize, who was talking to me as if we were old friends. Talking to me about this horse at his job who didn’t like him and always tried to kick him when he was changing the hay in the stable.”

Jungkook laughs, clearly having forgotten that. “I remember her. She did not like me.”

“I just stood there, very confused,” he continues. “I didn’t say anything at first because I did not know what to say. It was the strangest thing I’d ever experienced. So I just stood there as I had been doing, listening to you and observing you. And, goodness, my darling, were you beautiful. I had never seen anyone so beautiful before, and never have since. You were so breathtaking. I knew that just catching a glimpse of you was worth the anguish that would come when I fully came to my senses – about what I’d done, about all of the time that had passed, about how everyone I once knew had surely died. It was all worth it just to see you and hear your voice, even if it lasted only a fleeting second.

“And it did not last that briefly. It lasted the rest of the night, until dawn almost came. I did not even realize it until you said, ‘Oh, you should go?!’ I looked at the sky and saw that the sun would come up soon. Then you said, ‘See you tomorrow!’ And I figured that was my cue to leave. I did not know where I would go, but I realized this must have been a routine set in place. So I left, and I let instinct lead me to where I spent the sunlight hours. And at nightfall, I returned back to town, and there you were, waiting for me.

“And then around a week later, you started to catch on. I accidentally nodded along to what you were saying, and you caught me. You narrowed your eyes at me and asked, ‘Can you understand me?’ I did not know what to do or say, because I didn’t want to speak yet because I just–I was nervous about all of this, and it was all still so strange, and I was not ready to deal with any of it head on, and I enjoyed these nights we spent together, so I didn’t do anything. I just stayed quiet and blinked at you and kept the charade up, but you saw right through me and knew I was lying.”

“I did,” Jungkook giggles.

“And like the little sweetheart you are, you let me get away with it. I slipped up a few more times, because it all started to feel normal and familiar, and you still did not say anything. I assumed you never would until I was ready, but that was not the case.”

“No it was not,” Jungkook giggles again. “You were naked! I saw your cock before you’d ever said a word to me.”

Taehyung laughs, his head dropping forward. He giggles more when Jungkook ruffles his hair, then lifts his head up for him for a kiss. The snow is still falling gently outside of the windows, piling up on the windowsills. It sparkles in the light of the moon. Jungkook’s eyes sparkle with the light of the crackling fire. Everything in Taehyung sparkles with the warmth of the night together.

“Keep going though,” Jungkook says. “I want to hear about it from your perspective.” They have gone through this many times, but not this time around. Not as who they are now. Who they are again.

“Well,” Taehyung continues, “day was coming, like it always is. But this time instead of saying goodnight, you asked if I wanted to come over. It was so funny, the way we both knew you knew I understood you, but you still kept up the pretenses. The way you very lazily mimed the gestures for ‘home,’ and the way you pointed and tried to explain. It was very silly, because we both knew, but you went through the motions anyway.

“I did not nod or show that I understood. I stayed in place when you started walking away, until you motioned for me to follow over your shoulder.”

He remembers walking up the creaky wooden stairs to the apartment above the horse stable, how he was hearing that sound for the first time, not knowing he would soon grow so, so familiar with it. He remembers seeing it all for the first time, as a stranger, then seeing it again as someone who lived there. Really, the first time he saw it was as someone who lived there, because he never left after, not for a single night. He thinks that Jungkook knew when inviting him over that he was inviting him to stay.

“Well, uh, this is my apartment,” Jungkook said sheepishly. “It’s not much, but.” He shrugged.

It was not much, but Taehyung did not have a home. He had not had a home in a long, long time, and it was lovely. It was small and made a lot of noises when he walked, but it felt lived in. It smelled of Jungkook, and there were traces of life all around. The bowl in the sink, the boots by the door, the pillow with an indent on it where he laid his head at night. Taehyung did not know until then that he missed having a home.

It was all one room – the kitchen, the bedroom, the little living area. There was a single door other than the entrance door, and it led to a small bathroom, just enough space for a bathtub, a toilet, and a sink. He stood awkwardly in the doorway of the bathroom when Jungkook walked in, and he watched him empty several buckets of water into the bathtub.

“It would take forever to boil the water on the stove, and by the time the tub is full of water, it probably would have lost all its heat, so I usually have buckets of water sitting in here so at least it’ll be room temperature rather than cold from the well.” Taehyung did not say anything, and it took him until all of the buckets were empty to realize this bath was for him. He only did realize because Jungkook said, “Get in. I’ll find clean clothes for you.” Then he left the bathroom.

Taehyung stood there for several minutes. He did not move or say anything. He did not know how he ended up in this situation, and he did not know how to proceed within it.

But having been present in his body again, he had been very aware of how absolutely, terribly disgusting he was, and it sounded wonderful to wash all of that away. He did what he could in the lake, but he did not take his clothes off or fully submerge himself anywhere, because he did not have other clothes to change into and was nervous of something happening, like not realizing the sun was going to rise, or someone finding him. He was still so scared back then.

So finally, reluctantly, he began to undress. He avoided looking in the small mirror leaned against the sink. He avoided his reflection in windows he passed, and the lake or the fountain too. He did not want to have to see what he looked like now.

He carefully stepped into the tub, trying to make as little noise as possible. He was uncertain why. It was all so strange, and he did not know what to do.

But that left him when he sank fully into the water and submerged himself until all that was out was his head. He sank the rest of the way in, allowing the water to fully cover him. He only came back up when he could feel the thud of Jungkook’s light footsteps as he walked into the bathroom.

Taehyung rose to the surface again. He looked up at Jungkook. What an odd situation. A vampire lying in the bathtub, looking up at this human who had welcomed him into his home and made a bath for him.

Even more strange was it when Jungkook knelt on the floor beside the tub. Taehyung saw that he had a glass bottle in his hand. He pulled open the cork, and a nice aroma filled the small room. “The shampoo at the market is so expensive,” he said as he poured some of the contents onto his hand, “so I made my own. I boiled down some soap with water over the fire, and I add some herbs or flowers every time. This time I added lavender petals, since it’s in season.” The scent was relaxing, even more so when Taehyung could smell Jungkook’s blood at the base of it, with even more of his scent surrounding him since this was his home.

Taehyung made his first sound around Jungkook that was not a hiss or a growl or whatever animalistic sounds he had made around him before. It was a soft noise of surprise and confusion when Jungkook’s hands went to his hair. He flinched, as if he were the scared animal and not the predator. Jungkook froze and surveyed Taehyung. Taehyung looked at him back. Several seconds passed, then Jungkook began to move his fingers in Taehyung’s hair.

It only took a few more moments for Taehyung to relax, and he leaned into the head scratches. Jungkook massaged his head, washing away all of the dirt and dust that has accumulated in the strands after so long. Thankfully he was not a human, so he did not have decades worth of oil in his hair, just what stuck to him from living outside – which was admittedly a lot, especially when he did not know what happened within those decades.

So gently and carefully as if he could break, Jungkook washed his hair for him. Taehyung let his head loll to the side, and Jungkook took that moment to scrub the area around his ear before tilting his head for him to the other side to do the same.

Taehyung had not been treated like this since he was a child, most likely, if even then. No one had ever taken care of him in this way. And he had never deserved it less.

As Jungkook combed his fingers through his hair to move from his scalp down the length of his hair, he said quietly, “Are you going to tell me your name? Or are we going to keep pretending that you can’t understand me?”

Taehyung felt the strangest sensation on his face. His lips moved in a way they hadn’t in the longest time. He smiled, and he let out a breath of a chuckle. He kept his eyes closed as Jungkook continued to wash his hair.

“I am Taehyung,” he finally said. The words came out raspy and quiet, hurting his throat because he had not used his vocal cords in so long.

“Taehyung,” Jungkook repeated to himself. Taehyung had never heard his name spoken in such a way. “I’m Jungkook.”

“Jungkook,” Taehyung said quietly.

“Tilt your head back for me, Taehyung,” Jungkook said. It sent a shiver through Taehyung. Hearing his name. He listened, and Jungkook began pouring water from the bath down his head, washing away the soap he massaged in. He did so over and over again, allowing the water to cascade down as he sometimes massaged his fingers throughout to make sure every soap bubble was cleared away. “Your hair is long, Taehyung.” It was as if now that Jungkook knew his name, he would not stop saying it.

“Is it?” Taehyung asked, because he did not know.

“It is,” Jungkook said. “It reaches down your back. It is very beautiful, but you seemed annoyed with it pretty often. Would you like a haircut?”

“I suppose that would be more practical.”

“We’ll cut it afterward then. There’s a bar of soap on the ledge there. I’ll leave you to finish washing up yourself, but take as long as you’d like. I left a towel on the sink here, and clothes for you beside it. If we’re going to cut your hair though, you shouldn’t get fully dressed yet.”

Taehyung just nodded, looking down at the rippling water. He did not know what to say. He did not know what one even would say in this situation. Jungkook left him to finish. Taehyung wanted to stay there for a while, maybe days, because he did not know how to approach whatever was waiting for him outside of the bathroom. But it was nighttime, and he did not want to keep Jungkook awake more than he already did every night, so he began washing many, many, many days’ worth of dirt and grime from his skin. He did not realize how uncomfortable it felt until he was clean again. At least clean physically. There would never be a way to wash away everything he had done.

He rose out of the tub and pulled the plug at the bottom. He dried off with the towel, then he hesitated for several minutes, just standing still in the bathroom, listening for any noises. There weren’t any. If he were to open the door to find Jungkook asleep, he would not know what to do. He peeked outside the door, and just found Jungkook sitting at the small table in the kitchen, looking out the window into the sleeping night.

Jungkook looked over at the sound of the door creaking open, and he gave him a small smile. Taehyung did not know why he was smiling at him. At such a monster, a stranger. He did not know why he was receiving any kindness at all.

“Here, come sit here,” Jungkook said. “There isn’t much room in the bathroom.”

With a towel around his waist, Taehyung padded lightly through the small apartment and sat at the wooden chair Jungkook pulled out for him. Jungkook began brushing through his hair with a comb, and Taehyung could feel down his back how long his hair reached. It was almost at the middle of his back. It would have been much longer if he were a human and it had grown all of those years at a human-pace, but it was still much longer than he felt comfortable with.

“How short would you like me to cut it?” Jungkook asked. He spoke so softly.

“Whatever you think is best is okay,” Taehyung replied in a whisper. His eyes closed Jungkook began to cut his hair. He focused on the sound of the scissors snipping through a gathering of strands. The sound of Jungkook’s bare feet against the wood floor as he walked around him to reach different areas. The sound of the locks of hair hitting the floor as they were cut off.

Taehuyng opened his eyes because he knew Jungkook was in front of him, cutting his bangs for him. “Why are you doing this?” he finally asked quietly.

“You said you wanted a haircut,” Jungkook said. The small smile in his tone conveyed he knew what he was being asked. He did not answer though, and Taehyung did not push him. He suspected that Jungkook did not know the answer either. Taehyung closed his eyes again.

Several minutes later, Jungkook said, “I think I’m done. Would you like to see?”

Taehyung shook his head, looking down at his lap. “I am sure you did a good job.”

“Still, there’s a mirror in the bathroom if you want to look when you get dressed.”

Despite presumably looking presentable, Taehyung did not look when he dressed. He did not want to see. Not ever, probably, but certainly not yet.

He realized that Jungkook gave him pajamas. Not outerwear, but clothes meant for sleep. Which Taehyung thought meant that maybe he was not being told to leave. At least not yet. Even if Taehyung insisted, he could not go out dressed in sleepwear. That was what he told himself, at least. Even then, he was being selfish. He fears he has always been selfish with Jungkook. But is it selfishness if doing so gave Jungkook exactly what he wanted?

He walked out of the bathroom, watching Jungkook sweep the last of his hair into a dustpan to empty into a trash bin. Jungkook looked up at the sound of him, and Taehyung was confused by the way he thought he saw Jungkook soften when he saw him dressed in his pajamas.

“Do you sleep during the day?” Jungkook asked.

“Not often, no,” Taehyung answered.

“Do you have to sleep?”

“No.”

“What do you do when the sun’s out then?”

Taehyung blinked, realizing, “I do not know.” Even having been lucid for weeks at this point, he could not recall what he did during his days.

“You can stay here if you want,” Jungkook said. Taehyung learned by the next season that he added, “For now,” knowing the permanence of the offer would scare Taehyung, because he was so confused about all of this. Taehyung, the vampire, being the scared one in this situation.

“Alright,” Taehyung eventually said, because he did not know what else there was to say.

“Good,” Jungkook said resolutely. Taehyung watched him get in bed as he continued to stand there. Once he was all settled, he said, “Are you just going to stand there all night?”

“What else am I to do?” Taehyung asked.

“Well, the bed is pretty small, but we could both fit probably.” Taehyung was extremely taken aback. “But if you don’t want to, you’re welcome to sit anywhere.”

Several moments later, Taehyung said, “Alright,” again. He carefully walked forward and took a seat at the small dining table, which wasn’t too far from the bed.

“I usually wake up at dawn and go downstairs to work. I don’t know what you do during the day, or if you need to do things at night, but whatever you do, you can come back here when you want.”

“Alright.”

Jungkook chuckled. “Goodnight, Taehyung.”

“Goodnight, Jungkook.”

“I don’t think I moved that entire night,” Taehyung says amid the fireplace crackles and the occasional gentle kiss on his hand from Jungkook. “I sat there completely still, not looking away from you once.”

Jungkook has rolled onto his back by now, looking at the ceiling as Taehyung still laid on his stomach across from him, their heads beside each other. Jungkook turned his head to look at him. “You did the same thing later on when you found me in the park. You like watching me sleep I think.” He pokes him in the cheek. “Creep.”

Taehyung laughs. “I have always been captivated by this strange, beautiful creature,” he says, because it is true. “Even though it was beyond reckless, and I have scolded you many times for it, I am very grateful that you let me into your home. I had not been taken care of before, and it allowed me to fall in love with you. It was reckless and quite stupid, but I am so, so happy that it happened.”

“Me too,” Jungkook says softly. His eyes flutter closed when Taehyung kisses his cheek, allowing his lips to linger. “You were already yourself a month later. You’d already warmed up and were my Tae."

Jungkook has said it this way before, but he thinks hearing it as they reminisce is what makes it feel different. He became himself. Not he changed or the monster faded away more. But he became himself. Because that is who he is. Who he is when he loves and adores Jungkook is who he is; it is what defines him, even when all of the other things are in his past.

To Jungkook, at least.

“I was being cared for by the warmest person there is,” he says. “Of course you’d warm me right up too.” Jungkook smiles shyly, looking back up at the ceiling. “When did you first notice things changed?”

Jungkook’s smile turns softer as he remembers it. “I had to work especially long that day,” he says. “There were rich people coming to the village to rent the horses for whatever rich people things they do, and they came to pick them up early. I had to be up before dawn to get everything ready, and I had to travel with them to where they were going too, because horses had really gone out of style by then – at least for the wealthy people – so they didn’t know how to care for them. It was the longest, most annoying day, having to be around them in general, but as a stable boy they very obviously looked down on. It was just so tiring, and I didn’t get back until late at night.”

Taehyung remembers it too. He remembers everything now that he was allowed to.

Jungkook had told him that he wouldn’t be back until late at night, but he never gave him an exact time. Taehyung paced around the apartment nervously as the hours ticked by. He could go off and search for him, and he would probably be successful because of how intimately he had gotten to know Jungkook’s scent, but getting near the horses would cause a fuss and cause him more work, and make it take longer for him to get home. So he stayed where he was, waiting.

He sighed in deep relief when he could hear horse hooves against the dirt road outside, getting closer and closer. He ran to the window and saw Jungkook approach. He had a line of horses to navigate back home himself, because those who rented them probably left to go home and did not care about how Jungkook would get them all home himself.

Jungkook looked up as he approached, at the window to their – his, Taehyung told himself, his, it is not mine or ours – apartment above the stable. And even though Jungkook looked worn out and tired, he smiled seeing Taehyung there. This former (and still kind of) stranger who had been staying in his apartment with him for some strange reason. He smiled at him like he was relieved to see him after such a long day. Like finding someone – or maybe him specifically – in his home after such a long, tiring day was a good thing, rather than an annoyance or something to make him more tired because he wouldn’t be alone.

Jungkook brought the horses into the stable, so Taehyung started his own work. He had been heating up large pots of water on the stove for hours, alternating what simmers and what sits to the side so that everything would still be warm by the time he got back. He began emptying them into the tub in the bathroom. He poured some soap into the water and swirled it around with his hands until he began to bubble up, filling the bathroom with the aroma of lavender. He plucked some petals off the flowers in the kitchen and sprinkled them into the tub, feeling silly as he did it, but pleased with the results. He lit a few candles as well and was done right when Jungkook began walking up the stairs.

“Hi,” Jungkook sighed tiredly when the door opened, his body slumped as if begging him to sit and rest. Taehyung was already behind him, helping him take his coat off. He smelled like the stable, but it became a scent Taehyung took comfort in. It meant that Jungkook was home. When Jungkook took his boots off, Taehyung took him by the shoulders and silently directed him to the bathroom. It looked very relaxing and cozy in there, if he did say so himself. And Jungkook seemed to think so too when he said, “Oh,” quietly. “This is for me?” Taehyung nodded.

“Get in and relax,” Taehyung instructed. “I will make you dinner.”

Jungkook turned around. Taehyung’s breathing stuttered. He realized that that was strange, when he did not need to breathe to begin with. He just… hadn’t been hugged by him before. He was not sure if he ever had been hugged at all, but if so, it’d been a long, long time since then. And it did not feel like this.

It took him several seconds to react, because he almost forgot what he needed to do. But it felt so natural to wrap his arms around Jungkook in return. “Thank you,” Jungkook said quietly. Taehyung almost did not hear him because he could not understand feeling this way. He did not understand how it could feel so good to be held like this.

“You are welcome,” Taehyung finally said. It was the absolute least he could do after being allowed to live here lately.

He left Jungkook to undress and get in the tub while he went to the kitchen to make dinner for him.

Cooking was strange. He could not try his creations to know if they tasted good, because it all tasted bad to him even if it looked delicious. He had to learn how to do everything through observing Jungkook, and when Jungkook saw him watching, he began to teach him directly. Since he began to gain more confidence through Jungkook’s guidance and feedback, he started to make Jungkook dinner every night so it would be ready when he came upstairs after a day of hard work.

He was done right when Jungkook got out of the tub, dressed in pajamas and looking much better than he did when getting home. “Thank you,” he said softly when Taehyung set the plate down in front of him. Taehyung always lingered nervously to see his reaction when taking the first bite, but Jungkook always sweetly gave him outstanding reviews – and tonight was no different.

Taehyung usually cleaned up the kitchen as Jungkook ate, but this time he sat with him. He brought Jungkook’s legs up and rested them in his lap. He laughed when Jungkook, in the middle of eating, seemed to completely shut down as Taehyung began to massage his feet. He sank back into his seat, fork still in his hand as his eyes fell shut. “Finish eating before it gets cold,” Taehyung said. Jungkook listened, but it seemed to be a struggle.

“You’re so good to me,” Jungkook sighed, watching him once his plate was empty.

Taehyung quietly chuckled. “It is so firmly the other way around,” he said. “This is all the least I could do.” Jungkook did not fight it like he normally would; he just closed his eyes and let himself sink into the foot rub.

Soon, Taehyung stood and moved behind him to massage his shoulders, trying to untangle the knots he had accumulated during many laborious days. When his head dropped forward and he was on the edges of sleep, Taehyung whispered, “Let’s get you in bed.”

He helped Jungkook stand, and he helped him lie down. It was thankfully the day before the weekend, meaning Jungkook could sleep in and recover from his work, and Taehyung could spend the next two days doting on him so he could hopefully make him refreshed for the coming week. Taehyung wished he could get a job to help him out (or be allowed to take any money they needed without Jungkook’s disapproval), but he decided he would help him as much as he could in this way instead.

Once Jungkook was comfortable in bed, Taehyung flicked off the lights and began to turn away to quietly clean up the kitchen. Jungkook caught his wrist before he could go. “Stay,” he said softly.

“I am,” Taehyung said, matching the tone of his voice. “I will just be cleaning up the kitchen.”

“No, leave it,” Jungkook said. “It can wait ‘til morning. Stay.”

“Stay where?” Taehyung asked, confused.

“With me. In bed.”

“Y-You want me to get in bed with you?” he asked. He knew customs had changed greatly since he was last a human, but the notion still made him blush. He did not know if it was because of the thought of getting in bed with someone who was not his lover, or if it was because it was Jungkook. Jungkook nodded. Taehyung swallowed. “Okay,” he said quietly.

Reluctantly, he peeled back the blanket. He hesitated further, then he finally slid into his bed for the first time. Jungkook moved over to give him room, but the bed was only fit for one person, so it required them to be very close. Jungkook turned on his side, looking at him. He did not seem at all shy about any of it. He looked at him so confidently, like he did not have to steal glances. Still, Taehyung could sense his nervousness and reluctance when he moved closer. And even more, until their bodies were touching.

Taehyung moved on instinct. It was as if he knew what Jungkook wanted, and he knew exactly what to do. He held his arm out, and Jungkook tucked himself beneath it. Jungkook’s head went to his chest, and Taehyung’s arms wrapped around him. Neither of them asked if this was okay, neither of them gave permission. Neither of them spoke about it, at least not until months later when holding one another is not all they did before sleep.

Taehyung just held him. He occasionally ran his hand up and down Jungkook’s arm, not realizing he was doing it until a few seconds later when he stopped. He just wanted to feel him, as if it was impossible not to. The feeling of Jungkook’s body against his own. His chest pressing against his side, then retreating, again and again with his breathing. The way his body relaxed and became limp in Taehyung’s arms when he fell asleep.

Taehyung had watched Jungkook sleep every single night for many nights. He saw how he slept lightly, was often restless. How it seemed like he never fell into deep sleep.

That was not the case that night. It was not the case ever again.

Taehyung remembers months later, when they finally spoke about it. They were in the same position as that night, but without their clothes after their activities only minutes prior. They were relaxed against one another instead of tense and unsure.

“You looked so nervous!” Jungkook laughed.

“Well, I was suddenly living with a human, and I was holding him!” Taehyung defended himself through giggles. “That was a very strange turn my life took! I did not know how to proceed with things that way. I did not even truly know how I got there to begin with.” He tilted Jungkook’s head up with a finger beneath his chin. He softly kissed his lips. “I still do not know,” he said softly. “This sweet, precious boy you are. I do not know what I have done to be given your love.”

“You didn’t have to do anything,” Jungkook said softly in return. “I fell in love with you because you let me. And because you fell in love with me too.”

Taehyung kissed him again. “I did,” he said. “So deeply, so entirely. My darling boy.”

“Why do you think we didn’t recognize each other as soon as we saw each other again?” Jungkook asks now, turning his head to look at him again. Taehyung can hear the others in the manor. Hoseok, Seokjin, and Jimin in the living room talking, only heard by their voices and not their words; Namjoon alone in his library, but accompanied by the sound of pages turning; Felix and Chan somewhere with Yoongi, but Taehyung cannot tell where. He can hear the others, but it is as if he and Jungkook are completely alone. It is only them, the crackling fire, and the flickering candles in this dark room, lying on their blankets and pillows, reminiscing as snow piles up outside in the night.

Taehyung sighs. “I do not know,” he says. “I think for my part, I had blocked you out from my head so strongly that almost nothing could penetrate the prison around my memories. For you, perhaps it was more difficult since you had lived another life entirely.”

“Do you think we would have even recognized each other if we hadn’t gone to the museum?”

“I think eventually, yes, definitely,” Taehyung says. Jungkook looks relieved by his certainty. “I do not think it would have taken us much longer either. We knew, and we were close to understanding. But I am happy it happened in the way it did. To have proof in front of us.”

“A very romantic way too,” Jungkook says.

“Indeed,” Taeyhung says. It would be difficult for it to be in an unromantic way though, because that was all their life was made of, and what it is like again. Taehyung kisses Jungkook’s forehead, then his lips upside down. “Is there anything you would like to talk about, darling?”

“What do you mean?”

“About all of this,” he says. “I know it was easy for you to accept, and I trust you, because I think we probably feel the same way. But it is more strange for you. If you would like to talk about it, about any of it at all, I am here to listen and talk too. Even if it is something you think may hurt my feelings, although I don’t even know what that could be. Just, anything you would like to talk about, I want you to feel like you can.”

“There’s really nothing, sire,” Jungkook says, sounding like he means it. “I mean, yeah, it’s really weird, but I think it probably feels kind of like it was for you for a little while. Like I just went to sleep for a while, and then I woke up again.” It sounds so kind and innocent to describe it as going to sleep, and not becoming a monster once again. “Do you have anything you want to talk about?”

“I turned you without your real consent,” Taehyung says. It has been weighing on his mind since he was turned, but other matters began to take precedence. Still, it has been there, eating away at him. Well, perhaps not eating. Nibbling, at least, for sure. “You were dying, and you were not fully in your head from the blood loss. So when you nodded – if you even actually nodded, and your head was not just moving – it wasn’t true consent for me to turn you. If I had asked you as you are now, would you have said yes?” He had already asked him the same question before, but they did not know then what they know now. He wants to be sure that nothing has changed.

“Well, if you’re asking me as I am right now – in love with you and lying together half naked in front of the fireplace – I wouldn’t even need to be asked, because I’d make you turn me and never shut up about it until you did.” Taehyung laughs. Behind that though is a deep sadness, because it is almost what he did last time. And Taehyung hesitated for too long. “But if you asked me when I was homeless and didn’t know you… I don’t know. If I didn’t know that I would have somewhere to live, I probably would have said no. I don’t know.” He looks at Taehyung. “What if you’d found me in the alley, and you were too late. What if I was dead? What would you do?”

Taehyung swallows. He squeezes his hands into fists to force them to stop shaking. “I think that I would have remembered then. I would have remembered who you were. Who we were. And I think I would have finally ended my life too.”

Jungkook makes such a sad whimpery sound in the back of his throat. Taehyung rests his hand on his cheek and kisses him. “It all ended up okay,” Taehyung says softly. “We do not need to think about all of the other sad endings that could have happened again, because they did not. You are here, and I am here, and we are safe, and we will never part.” A whimper crawls its way up his throat too. He had not known it was there, nor this desperation. He trails his fingers down Jungkook’s cheek. He has already said it before, but he says again, “Please do not get sick of me, my love. Please do not stop wanting me.”

Jungkook rises. He turns Taehyung onto his back, then he straddles him. He rests his hands on his cheek, then he leans down. He does not kiss him. He says, “Tae,” softly. “Never, baby. I want to spend every single second of my unending life right by your side, and it still wouldn’t be enough. You never, ever have to worry about that, sire. Never. I promise you a time will never come where I don’t want you. I will never get sick of you. I promise, Tae. I love you so fucking much. I love you so much. I’ll always want you. I’ll always love you.” Jungkook kisses his tears away. Taehyung can feel in his chest that Jungkook means the words he is saying. And he knows in his heart that they are true.

Chapter Text

“Make sure you’re holding it up like this, not at an angle,” Chan says, tilting the tattoo gun in Jungkook’s hand to correct it. “Yeah, good. Now just trace the outline.”

Taehyung leans against the doorframe, watching Jungkook curled over the pad of fake skin as he begins to draw the stencil in black ink. His hair is held back by the half-up bun Taehyung helped put it in earlier, and he has a furrow between his eyebrows as he carefully focuses, some pensive dimples coming out too. Taehyung loves when those appear.

Jungkook has been with Chan all morning, being taught how to tattoo. Chan is a very sweet and patient teacher, and he and Jungkook get along as well as Taehyung thought; it is as if they have been friends for years. They are so similar in all of their sweet qualities – both excitable, both endlessly caring to their mates. Taehyung has come to check up on Jungkook every once in a while, but he seems completely okay, nothing like he was when their guests first got here.

Jungkook finally leans back and surveys his work, then he looks at his teacher. “That’s great!” Chan says, making Jungkook beam.

Jungkook notices his boyfriend in the doorway and says, “Sire! Come look!”

Taehyung enters the room and rests his hand on the top of Jungkook’s head to scratch him there as he looks at the pad of fake skin on the table – where, surprisingly, is a collection of flowers. Taehyung is not sure what he expected, really, but perhaps something edgier. The flowers are just linework now, not yet getting into shading or colors, but they are very wonderfully done.

“That looks great, darling,” Taehyung says. “The lines are so neat; it is as if it was printed that way.”

“Thanks,” Jungkook says shyly.

“Do you want to take a break or move on to the next part?” Chan asks.

“Next part!” Jungkook says.

Taehyung leans down and kisses the top of Jungkook’s head. “I will leave you to it then,” he says. “Either of you let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks, hyung,” Chan says, because he and his mate still insist on calling him hyung.

Taehyung leaves them and returns to the living room, where he was watching a film with Jimin and Felix. “Everything okay?” Felix asks.

Taehyung sits beside him sheepishly. They were able to tell he had restless energy, but he tried to suppress it and be normal with his friends and allow his mate to hangout with and learn from a new friend. Jimin knows why it is difficult for him to be apart from Jungkook, but Felix does not. He is sure he looks like a very clingy boyfriend. He does not mind, and it is not far from the truth whatsoever. There is just an additional tug to Jungkook that goes a step beyond clinginess that he sometimes cannot disobey.

“Yes, they seem to be having fun together,” he says. He turns back to the screen so hopefully the subject will change.

“Jungkook is very… tame for a young fledgling,” Felix says.

“Tame in his vampire behaviors, yes, but not tame in general,” Taehyung chuckles, receiving a strong show of agreement from Jimin. “He is a very energetic, headstrong, needy little thing.”

Taehyung laughs when they hear shouted from down the hall, “I HEARD THAT!”

“And I love him very, very, very much,” Taehyung says.

Then, “GOOD!”

“See?” Taehyung laughs with his friends. “But yes, he is more well-behaved than I thought a fledgling his age could ever be. I am very proud of him. He listens to his sire, and he is kind, and I know he is not a danger to himself or others. He is very special.”

Jimin presses his lips together as he clearly holds back tears, because he knows there is more to it than what he says. Taehyung holds back his laugh, because he doesn’t think Jimin will ever be normal about them. He does not know how he himself keeps it together the majority of the time, but he thinks it is just because of how right it all is. His Jungkook is by his side, and it’s almost as if he never left, as if a century didn’t pass. Everything fell right back into place.

Thankfully Felix is not looking in Jimin’s direction. And thankfully Felix does not ask any further questions. It feels hard to explain one part of their relationship without explaining all of it, and those just are not things he wants to share. At least not yet.

The subject moves on to Felix telling them about his and Chan’s friends, the new ones they have acquired that Taehyung is not yet acquainted with, when Taehyung hears movement through the forest outside. All of the members of the household and the guests as well are occupied and distracted, and they do not have the fully refined senses that someone of Taehyung’s age has.

He knows it is not a human, because they have taken precautions to make sure no humans can even come near the perimeter that surrounds the manor’s property, since Jungkook was a fledgling who did not have control over himself yet.

It must be a vampire if they can make their way over the bounds of the gate – although the gate itself should be a barrier a vampire cannot cross without the permission of the manor’s inhabitants.

Felix or Chan would have told Taehyung if they had invited the friends they spoke of, and doing so would have been strange and out of character to begin with – the both of them knowing of Taehyung’s private nature.

Not wanting to alarm anyone, Taehyung rises and says, “Please excuse me.” Assuming he is probably going to check on Jungkook again, they let him go.

He walks past the room Jungkook and Chan are still in though, past the buzz of the tattoo machine and Chan’s sweet encouragement, and toward the front door. He calmly opens it and steps onto the porch, then he quietly closes it behind him. He looks out into the forest, waiting. He should have suspected who would walk out from it.

“What are you doing here?” Taehyung speaks calmly, but he knows there’s a deadly venom injected into the words.

Baekhyun looks different. He is not poised and posh like he usually is. He looks unkempt and messy, clothes dirty and askew, hair down from its usual quiff and wet with something Taehyung is unsure of. There is an emptiness in his eyes that Taehyung recognizes. He is not as lost to himself as he could be, but he is lingering just on the edge between humanity and bloodlust. He is stumbling across the field toward the manor, looking like a drunk human. He is not speaking a word, just looking at him while not entirely present.

Taehyung would like to end it now. He would like to meet him where he stands and remove his head from his body like he has done so many times to others.

But he has guests. And he will not be a disrespectful host.

“Is the fledgling here?” Baekhyun finally says, mirth in his tone.

The way he is looking at him… the tone of his voice… He came here with a purpose. And Taehyung is uncertain that he can fight a vampire who is clearly dangling from the precipice. He is not certain that he has that ability in general now. Jungkook has softened him. It is not that he cannot emotionally do that, because he most definitely can. But Jungkook has unwound him so much that he is not sure the physical ability for violence is still within him.

It certainly is if he is put to the test to protect his lover and his family, but he does not know what Baekhyun is here for. He does not know his plans.

“He’s not here,” Taehyung says. It takes extreme effort to soften his voice. He needs to bring Baekhyun back to the edges of the property. He needs to get him on the other side of the fence. He needs to have him away from here to be able to banish him, to make it impossible to pass that boundary without an invitation. Now that there is a gate rather than just his front door to the manor, he needs to bring him there to revoke it, and he cannot drag him such a long way when he will put up a fight. And if he escapes, and Taehyung does not catch him in time…

With immense effort, Taehyung says, “Can we talk?” gently. Baekhyun stops and stares at him at the tone of his voice. He does not say a word. “I–I’d like to talk. But privately. The others–they can probably hear. And, as you know, there has been… drama, surrounding you.” He swallows. His chuckle does not sound as wry as intended, but it seems to do the job with Baekhyun who is not entirely there. “Surrounding us.” A small tick of his lips up. Baekhyun’s expression remains blank. “I had plans to come see you, but I was unsure where you are living at the moment, and I have not been able to swallow my pride enough to do so yet. But since you’re here–just, can we talk?” He cannot believe how good of a job he is doing with the acting. With protecting those he loves in mind though, it is easy.

“Talk?” Baekhyun asks. Taehyung wonders if this is how it was when Jungkook tried to talk to him all those years ago. Like speaking to someone who was grasping around to hold onto something and fully understand.

“Talk,” Taehyung nods. “Maybe we could go sit in the park? No one will be around, and I think it will be easier to say what I need to say.”

Baekhyun stares for a long time. Not in an assessing way, because he is not studying him. It’s a look of not fully understanding, until it gets through to him. “O-Okay,” he says.

“Thank you,” Taehyung sighs in relief. He steps off the front porch, keeping an eye on Baekhyun to make sure he does not charge inside. He does not though; he stays rooted to the spot. Swallowing the bile that seems to be rising in his throat, Taehyung holds out his hand.

Baekhyun stares at it for several moments, then he finally takes it. It takes everything in Taehyung to not rip his hand away, maybe rip something off Baekhyun too. It uses all of his effort with every step he takes with Baekhyun at his side.

Needing to distract him from maybe seeing how unlike him this is, Taehyung says, “How have you been, Baek?” The nickname tastes disgusting in his mouth.

Several moments later, “F-Fine.”

“Better than me then,” Taehyung chuckles. They finally reach the forest. Few snowflakes linger here, despite surrounding the manor itself and the edges of the forest. It is as if the universe wanted to give them a picturesque hideaway while everything beyond the manor’s bounds just appears depressing. Cold and grey and lifeless. “I don’t even know where to start…” The wall that surrounds the property comes into view with the pace they have been walking. Before he scales it, he asks in a gentlemanly manner, “Do you need help?”

Baekhyun shakes his head. Taehyung holds in his deep sigh of relief when Baekhyun easily throws himself over the other side. Instead of saying his words now, Taehyung follows after him. He does not want to make a scene, but he still does have a sadistic anger inside of him at the mere threat of harm to his mate, and it needs to be fed.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, he has Baekhyun by his throat. He throws him across the forest. Baekhyun’s back collides with a tree with a sound that he would be surprised his body survived. Even more so when it has been pushed through the trunk of a tree, causing the entire tree to fall. Taehyung feels bad about killing something that spent so long growing, but it leaves his head when he sees Baekhyun struggling to stand as his body heals from the assault.

Taehyung is on him though, and he punches him hard enough for the bones in his face to crack and cave. He takes him by the neck again and slams his head into the ground, wishing there was rock there rather than frozen soil.

“You dare showing up at my home?” he yells, slamming his head down again. “Looking for my fledgling? You pathetic, weak little creature.” He punches him again, watching blood stain his knuckles. Baekhyun is barely recognizable beneath the coating of blood that covers his broken features. “You are to never cross the bounds of the manor again. Your invitation has been revoked by the lord of the manor, and if I see you again, it will be the last time. Do you understand?” Baekhyun cannot respond. Taehyung does not care. He rises to his feet, and he kicks him hard enough to send him sliding through the snow again.

He leaves him there, and he jumps over the tall wall again.

With a sigh, he walks through the forest, smoothing down his sweater. He rubs his knuckles against his pants to try to clear the blood away, but he will probably need a shower to get clean, and an even longer one to feel clean after touching something so disgusting. The blood on his hands feels better than the memory of Baekhyun’s hand in his.

He reaches the manor, and he is confused to hear absolute silence. He left it with the others spending their time together, but it is quiet, and many of the lights are off. He goes to the living room and finds it empty. All of the rooms he passes are the same. He can vaguely hear the sounds of the manor from the members’ and guests’ living quarters, but that is all.

Strange, he thinks, but he makes his way to his own bedroom. His friends are probably tired out from spending so much time with others while their guests are here, and he would like a break as well. He and Jungkook have been apart for much of the day, and he would like the time to come back to one another.

He arrives at their bedroom, ready to slide into bed with Jungkook, but he is not there. Strange, he thinks again. He is perhaps gathering his supplies from his work with Chan and will be there soon, so Taehyung decides to shower. He washes the dirt and blood from him, sighing when he feels clean after an hour or so.

He dresses for bed after, but Jungkook is still not there. Taehyung ventures back out into the quiet manor. It is a little unsettling, because with seven people living there, it is always loud, not to mention having two guests.

He checks in all the living spaces, the game room, the sunroom since it is nighttime and they can see the stars, the offices and libraries, but he is nowhere to be found.

He decides to find his friends, so he goes off in the direction of Jimin, Yoongi, and Hoseok’s living quarters. As soon as he takes a few steps down that hall though, he is stopped by Jimin’s appearance.

“Oh, good evening,” Taehyung says. “Have you seen Jungkook-ah?”

There is a strange expression on Jimin’s face. It makes a pang of panic appear in Taehyung, because he does not know what it is. “He…” Jimin starts. “I–I don’t know where he is.” Jimin swallows, opening and closing his mouth a few times.

“Tell me, Jimin.”

“Earlier, w-when he heard the front door open and close, h-he looked out the window and, uh, s-saw you with Baekhyun. We tried to tell him that obviously something wasn’t right and you’d explain when you got back, because why the fuck would you be holding hands with Baekhyun? We obviously knew something was weird and you’d tell us what happened when you got back, but when we tried to tell him that, it’s like he couldn’t even hear us. He threw open the door and we assumed he’d try to catch up to you. We tried to stop him, but he still wouldn’t acknowledge us. Then he shifted and flew off, a-and we lost him once he flew into the forest.”

“And why didn’t you tell me the second it happened?!” Taehyung yells, his hands shaking. “You did not come find me, or even tell me when I stepped into the house? Are you all fucking stupid?”

Jimin’s eyes go wide and he staggers a step back. “W-Well, everyone was afraid to tell you, and–”

“Get. away from me, Jimin.” Jimin does not have to be told twice, because he is gone by the time Taehyung’s sentence is over. He does not blame him, because he has never spoken to any of them this way, and he would be scared to tell him that his lover who has found him through lifetimes is gone, but the fact that he is gone matters more than how Taehyung might receive the news. And how he did respond was kind compared to what he is feeling inside.

Taehyung runs outside and takes off in the direction of the forest from which he just came. He has nothing to go off of. If Jungkook had followed him to watch what happened, he would have returned when Taehyung was through with his business. It has been over an hour since then. And if Jungkook is in his bat form, Taehyung cannot smell him like he can when he is a vampire. Their bond is still there, although much fainter with the presumed distance, and it does not tell him which way leads to Jungkook, as if he could feel him more the closer he gets. All he feels is a tiny drop of anguish in his chest that he and Jungkook are sharing. Feeling anguish, though, is better than not feeling him at all.

“Jungkook-ah,” Taehyung calls out. He does not know why he never asked how his senses are in bat form to know what his hearing is like. He knows that both vampires and bats have exceptional hearing, so he hopes that wherever Jungkook is, he might be able to pick up Taehyung’s voice. “My darling, my love.” Taehyung does not even recognize his own voice. The desperation, the agony, the way they are so loud because of the way they come out so quietly. “You know you are my life, sweetheart. You are my life. I am n-nothing without you.” He does not know what he thinks happened. Did Jungkook think he was leaving with Baekhyun? That they were having a secret affair? It is the most ridiculous thing Taehyung has ever heard, and he cannot think that Jungkook would truly believe that despite what he saw, but it is all he can think of.

“Sweetheart, you have to know that what you saw is nothing near what you must have thought.” He feels foolish speaking to himself, but maybe Jungkook is somewhere, maybe he can hear. But something inside of him knows he is not in the forest. He cannot feel him here. He can feel the quiet pain of the bond, but he is usually able to feel when his love is near him. And he cannot feel that now. He continues walking through the forest, though, because he has nowhere to start if leaving its bounds, and maybe Jungkook will return. Maybe he is here and he just has not found him. He picks up every single sound there is. Searching for a flapping of wings, the crunch of shoes in the snow. A sniffle or a chirp. But there is nothing, only him.

He tells himself that maybe that is because he is not used to feeling his bat, since his little bat is usually clung right to him. He has not had to reach for the bond during those times, because Jungkook has usually been hanging from some part of him. They should have done a lot, talked about a lot, but they have an eternity, and he did not know they would be in this situation, and he knows these aren’t even important logistics to beat himself up about right now, but he just–where is he? Taehyung can feel his sadness, and–and he’s his sire, and his mate, and so much more, and he cannot find him to comfort him, and he just–

“Jungkook,” he sobs, stumbling into a tree as he walks faster. He needs to cover the whole forest surrounding the manor, and if he cannot find him there, he will search the city. But when he looks up at the sky, he sees that dawn will soon approach. And what then? What if Jungkook is found out in the sun? Will he still burn as a bat? Will he have someplace to hide? What if he–what if the sun burns him, or he cannot make it somewhere in time, or he is lost, or something happens, or Baekhyun finds him, or–

“Jungkook, d-darling, my love, p-please, where are you?” he yells. “I-I have lost you before, and I c-can’t do it again.”

He can feel when it begins.

He tries to calm down, tries to focus. Tries to breathe through his panic and see if it is fooling him. He cannot soothe himself, because he can feel it fading. He thought–he thought the way it was so small, the bond, the presence, he thought it was so faint because his Jungkook was far away somewhere. He thought it was because he was–he was somewhere else. But even with distance, it doesn’t–it can’t–it does not fade like this. It feels like a light slowly, slowly, slowly dying out, not even a fast extinguish, but something that slips away slowly so he can feel every moment of it as it goes. That warmth it is fading it is fading where has he gone where it is going. Taehyung falls to his knees, his hand reaching out as if he can grasp it, as if it can be held, but it has always felt that way, felt like something physical, it is slipping and he tumbles forward, his forehead to the ground as he tries to breathe. He tries to breathe and feel and listen and smell and find where he is, but all of his senses are flickering while the bond does the same, both things slowly flickering out. He blinks and his vision is dark around the edges, he tells himself it is the night, it is the dark forest, it is all it is. The way his–the way the forest sounds, it does not sound muffled, it is merely his panic. He cannot feel the snow beneath his knees or the chill of the winter wind, and it is because he is trying to feel for Jungkook, nothing more. He has not left forever, he tries to himself as the monster inches closer. It is not time yet. He is not lost forever again. It almost scares him how quickly and easily the darkness in him wants to take over. It did not take any effort at all, just the mere suggestion that perhaps it is only him again. It is not merely a suggestion though, because the bond the bond the bond where has it gone it is still there just a flicker the smallest of flames that is slowly shrinking and shrinking and fading to an ember just the smallest of glows. He is not lost he is not lost he is not gone, he tries to tell himself.

But if… if he dies as a vampire, that is it, Taehyung thinks. There would not be the possibility of him coming back another century from now. He cannot say that for sure, because he never would have said what happened could happen, but if Jungkook is already dead as a vampire right now, he does not think dying again would bring him back. Even if it could, he thinks they have been given another chance, and it is their final chance. He does not know for certain, but something in him does. And even if it worked, Taehyung cannot have another century of agony. He cannot have another century of scouring the earth searching for him. He cannot even ensure that he would be able to come back from what takes over.

An animalistic cry comes out of him, Jungkook’s name lost somewhere in it. His fingers dig into the earth, into the cold dirt as he sobs. “Jungkook,” he screams, but it only reaches the snow beneath him with the way he is folded over. He cries as if his beloved has been torn from him again. He does not know if the place he holds him in his chest is no longer there, or if his own agony is all there is and it is making it difficult to find it. Either way it feels as if it is gone again and sobs loud enough to echo around the city. Jungkook is gone he is gone he is not here. He has left and he has taken Taehyung with him he has taken everything he is and the warmth in Taehyung’s chest is dying dying dying out.

He cannot live without Jungkook. He cannot do it again. He cannot. He could not back then, but now that he remembers, now that he was given back, not born anew but born again, he cannot live knowing that has been taken from him again. When it is his fault again. He has done it again. He did not love him enough, did not care for him enough, did not hold him close enough, and it cost Jungkook his life the first time, and is costing Taehyung his life the second. Where is he where is he why can I not feel him what has happened where has he gone I cannot be alone again I cannot be without him.

“Jungkook,” he whimpers weakly. The snow beneath him melts more with each teardrop. He will stay here until the snow melts because the flames that engulf him have done so. A slow, painful death would be a reprieve from the pain he already feels. It is tightening around him tightening and tightening like a snake like the dark smoke that fogs over him that frees him from the coming pain that he does not deserve to be freed from. He has done it again he did it again because he is not good he has never deserved such a love he has cost him his life both chances he got because he is not good he will never be good.

“Tae,” a voice softly says. Gentle hands rest on him. “Come on, Tae. The sun will be up soon.”

He shoves them off and curls into himself more as he cries. He reaches and reaches for the bond in his chest, but his fingers do not even skim it, because he cannot find it. It is gone it is gone he has not even been allowed to feel the embers as they died out. There is only emptiness, a void, a darkness that had left to make room for the light that is his love. Now it is only him, and he is only darkness. He always has been, but his brief moments with Jungkook in his long life shone through it. Made him believe for fleeting seconds that he is not made of shadows. Certainly not made of light, but maybe what lingers right on the precipice between the two.

He barely notices when he is carefully pulled to his feet. His arm is put around Jimin’s shoulders as he gently says, “Let’s go home, Tae. We’ll find him tomorrow. You don’t want me to burn too, do you? So let’s go.” Taehyung does not say that he does not even care, because he does not care about anything right now. The whole world can burn as long as it means that he will too. What is left of him, he watches it go. He watches it leave, and he must go with it.

His back hits his mattress. He had not noticed they had walked that far, or even at all. But he is home. Or he is in his manor, because with Jungkook gone, it is not a home, or even someplace to live, because this life is no longer his to live. And as soon as Jimin leaves him, he will go back outside, and he will burn. He stares blankly up at the ceiling. His sobbing has stopped, his crying out for Jungkook. There is nothing. He is nothing. He is not even darkness, because that is something. He is the absence of anything; he is barely there at all. Jungkook is gone, and he is nothing without him. Jungkook is gone. He’s gone. He has left him. He is gone.

He listens for his bedroom door to open and close, waiting for the opportunity. But it does not come.

He hears Jimin sitting on the couch across the room, right by the door to the veranda. As if he knows Taehyung will run out if given the opportunity. “I’ll be right here,” he says. Not as a warning, but a reassurance. “I’ll be right here, and when the sun sets again, I will go out with you and we will find him.”

Taehyung does not say anything. He closes his eyes. Even as a pain so profound claws at him, as his beating heart is squeezed through dark fingers until it stops, as the warmth leaves his body to make room for the cold he had felt before, as something squeezes his neck until he feels his throat crushing, as the emptiness drills a hole through his chest and a fire consumes him, he lays here and takes it, because he deserves worse. Tears glide down his temples from the pain, from the emptiness, from his last memories of Jungkook, he lies here and waits. It will end soon. It will end soon, and wherever Jungkook has gone, whatever has happened, maybe he will be allowed a glimpse of him before he slips away.

He can hear voices chattering quietly throughout the manor. He cannot pick up what they are saying, just that they are there, trying to be quiet. He can hear the worried tone of them, but even if they were right beside him, he cannot think enough to listen anymore. He allows the emptiness to hug him, relishes in the pain that consumes him, finds relief and comfort in the monster that smiles at him with sharp teeth as it approaches. All he has to do is wait. He is stronger and faster than Jimin. Than any of them. He will sense when Jimin has let his guard down, and he will step out into the light. Jimin is speaking to him, but he does not hear it. Jungkook is gone. His love is gone. His spot in his chest is empty. He is gone. He has lost him. His love his love his darling boy the most precious gift the world has ever been given he is gone. Taehyung does not beg for him back because he knows no one will listen. He just waits.

He can see when the sunlight enters his room through his closed eyelids. He can feel the warmth of it on his bed beside him. Maybe this can work. The sunlight, weaker through the window, can rest on him, and it will be a slow burn. It will go unnoticed, and he can just lie here.

But then the warmth of the sun beside him disappears with the sound of his curtains being moved, and the room is dark again.

With Jimin across the room though, closing the remaining curtains, it is his chance. He does not hesitate, and he rises up. He has the door to the veranda thrown open, and he is just inches away. His escape the light so beautiful so dangerous and murderous and kind, so near, he can see the end, can see the relief of no longer knowing he has lost his love.

He is thrown across the room, hard enough for the wall to crack in the shape of his body. He charges forward again, pushing bodies away to reach the door. His arms are restrained, tugging him back. He fights to break free, ignoring the screaming and shouting being thrown at him. He yanks his arm free, and he brings his hand to his forearm. It is daybreak and Jungkook is not here. The sun is out it is high in the sky and Jungkook is not here. Jungkook is burning burning wherever he is he is burning and Taehyung has killed him because it is all he knows how to do. He cannot love he cannot love something so soft and gentle he has been unworthy of it all he has been undeserving of eternal life he has been undeserving of anything but its end and he will meet it he will arrive he will be ended because his love has been taken from him again he has not been taken he has been killed by Taehyung’s hands that will do the same to him. As hard as he can he drags his nails down his forearm. Five deep bloody gashes open on his arm dripping blood on the floor so quickly that a puddle begins to form. He brings his free hand to his neck as he still struggles against the restraints and he does the same there opening up deep wide cuts on his neck. Maybe he can bleed out maybe it will kill him faster than it would to escape and be in the sunlight maybe he will die the way Jungkook did before until the blood drains from his body and he is there no longer.

“ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!” he hears someone shout but he cannot tell who as he struggles to reach other veins that he can cut through. He remembers that the blood pouring from him is Jungkook’s. It is as it should be; he does not deserve to have any part of Jungkook in him. He should not have been kept alive by something so perfect for so long. It will drain from him and when all that is left is himself he will be there no longer because he has never been enough to keep the darkness away he is only a monster when Jungkook is not there to fool him into believing he is not.

He finally breaks free of his friends’ clutches because he is slippery from the blood shining along his skin, and he makes his way to the door again. He is not caught in time, and he slams it open. He steps out into the garden, in the bright, warm sunlight, and he smiles. He laughs as he feels it burn him. Or perhaps he is screaming; he does not know anything anymore. He can feel the sun burn through his skin, can feel it blister. He holds his arms out and tilts his face up to the sky so he can reach more. He closes his eyes. He thinks of Jungkook, his beautiful face, his beautiful smile, the love in his eyes that Taehyung has always known so deeply that he did not deserve. He can feel the end coming, and he holds onto that image in his head. He can hear his friends screaming for him and he laughs again knowing they cannot come out, because they cannot last out here as long as he can not when the sun is so bright and beautiful. He feels blood drip and drip and drip from the gashes across his body, can feel the hot sun burn through the open wounds getting deeper and deeper as his skin blisters and bubbles and scorches and gets closer and closer to the final relief. He feel his skin peeling where he has torn it open he can feel himself burn burn burn.

He feels something hit his chest. His friend can pelt him with whatever they wish to try to get his attention; it only serves as more punishment, not even a fraction of what he deserves. He can feel his skin about to burn, just seconds away from being engulfed in flames. He is so close he is so close he cries out in pain he has never felt such pain before he cries so loud his chest body feels torn open it hurts and it burns and he cries and screams as the burns open and he bleeds and he cries and he screams. He feels scratching against his chest and it has finally broken open with the extent of his cries.

“IT’S JUNGKOOK, TAE, P-PLEASE COME INSIDE!” Jimin screams at him from the open doorway. But it is just the background noise to the little incessant squeaks he hears.

He looks down, and there is a bat clinging to his shirt. His claws are digging into his chest as he looks up at him. Taehyung blinks down at him, but he does not move. There is a hand that has taken him by the back of his shirt and yanks him inside. Taehyung’s back hits their bed post, making the wood crack and break. But he does not care, because suddenly, the love of every life he could ever live is in front of him. His voice is so beautiful even as he screams and yells.

Taehyung does not know what is happening, what anyone is saying or doing. All of his focus is locked on Jungkook, who is here. He is standing in front of him, and his face is turning red as he yells at the others, and he is so beautiful. Taehyung reaches a trembling hand out, because he does not know if this is real. He does not know if the sun has burnt him into nothing and this is what is after, or if he is burning right now and this is all in his head. His hand gently rests on Jungkook’s arm, and he feels warm skin.

Jungkook stops yelling, and Taehyung does not deserve to be looked at so softly. The anger on his face and rage in his eyes dissolve, and it is just him looking at Taehyung so gently. Taehyung falls to his knees. His forehead collides with the floor because he cannot keep himself up, and he begins to wail again. He cannot think or speak, he does not even know if he feels anything. It is too much, and he does not know if this is real, and he does not know if Jungkook is here or why he left, or why there was his absence in his chest. He cannot feel if it is there, he can only feel the way his cries tear against the wounds and the burns that cover every inch of his body.

He is lifted off the ground, and he continues to sob as he’s enveloped in Jungkook’s arms. The room stops moving, and he allows his body to be maneuvered any which way. The room has gone silent, there are only his cries and quiet words spoken so softly. There is a stillness in the room, a gentle silence. It does not calm Taehyung. He tries to burrow into Jungkook further, but it is not enough. He tries to get closer, wants to dig his way into his chest, wants to see if the bond is there or stay there in its absence. He cannot be far from Jungkook; he wishes they could become woven into one, because even two separate people is far too far away from his love. He tries to burrow closer, tries to nuzzle closer, tries to press them together more, but it is not enough, it’s not enough. He buries his fangs in Jungkook’s neck as he continues to sob, his entire body trembling, Jungkook holding him tight like he is trying to hold all the broken pieces together. Taehyung can hear his voice, but he cannot hear the words he’s saying. He continues to cry, some of the blood spilling from his mouth and running down Jungkook’s neck, mixing with the blood that he himself is absolutely covered in. Their blood, their blood, mixed together inside and out. It’s not enough though, it’s not enough that the very thing that keeps them alive has merged into one, it’s not enough. He bites down harder as he sobs. “More, Tae, you can take more,” he thinks he hears Jungkook say. He bites down harder. Even more as Jungkook cries out, he bites down harder, he chokes on Jungkook’s blood because he cannot swallow as he wails. Jungkook presses his head further into his neck, and Taehyung bites down harder. He feels broken and small and he has never been so scared, he has never felt so scared, he cannot live without Jungkook, he cannot be anything without Jungkook, Jungkook is the best part of him, he is his entire world, he is his life, he cannot be without Jungkook he can’t he can’t he can’t he bites down harder he bites down and his top fangs meet his bottom teeth and Jungkook cries out again and Taehyung swallows he swallows the blood in his mouth and there is part of Jungkook’s neck that is there and Taehyung swallows that too and

He licks the wound closed even though he is not sure that it will be of any help, and he rests his hand on Jungkook’s neck to try to stop the bleeding. Jungkook is crying and so is Taehyung, but Jungkook’s are not tears of pain like Taehyung’s are. He does not know why Jungkook is crying and he cannot feel the bond because it is no longer there because Jungkook has parted from him and Jungkook has left him and–

“It’s there, sire, it’s there,” Jungkook says, his words shaking. “It’s there, it’s still there. Focus, Tae, calm down and feel it.” Jungkook takes Taehyung’s hand and presses it over his heart, and he rests his hand on top. Taehyung feels Jungkook’s beating heart. He rests his hand on his own heart, shaking and trembling because he does not know what he will do if their hearts no longer beat in sync.

Everything is still and silent. And it is there, beat for beat. Taehyung feels them for what must be a minute, trying to find if there is ever a moment where it falls out of sync for even a second, but it does not. Their hearts beat together.

And there, nuzzled in with their beating hearts, is the bond. It is curled up like a scared animal, trembling just like Taehyung is. Taehyung does not know if that is Jungkook’s fear or his own, but he feels them both. He would be okay with feeling this fear every day if it means he can feel him. Perhaps it makes him horrible that he would rather have Jungkook here and scared than not here at all, but he is not a good man, and he has always said so. He will spend his entire life loving and caring for Jungkook as long as he will let him, and he will try to do so well enough to make him want to stay, but he wants him here even if he no longer wants to be here. He does not know if he can let him go.

Neither of them move. They do not make a sound or take a breath. Taehyung feels their hearts beating. He feels them beneath his hands until he stops trembling. It takes so long that the sun has already begun to set by the time he lifts his eyes from his hand on Jungkook’s chest and looks at Jungkook’s face.

Jungkook is watching him. He looks so unbearably sad, but he is here. “Sire,” he says quietly. Taehyung weakly shakes his head. He cannot speak. “That’s okay,” Jungkook says softly. He stands, carrying Taehyung in his arms. “Let me get you cleaned up.” He walks them to their bathroom. He carefully sets Taehyung on his feet. Taehyung does not even notice, really. He cannot feel the floor beneath his feet. Can barely feel Jungkook’s fingertips against his torso as he slides his shirt up. When Jungkook drops to his knees to take off his pants for him, Taehyung sees himself in the mirror.

He looks like he walked out of a horror film, or escaped a murder. He is covered in blood, so much that his skin looks like it is red, and the spots of tan that are uncovered are what is staining his skin. His hair is matted down in some spots with it, and there are ugly gashes on his arm and his neck. He supposes he dug in so deeply that the skin could not heal right away, or maybe it is the way the sun burned him there before he could heal. He looks nightmarish, but it cannot compare to the way he feels.

Jungkook helps him get in the bathtub. Taehyung sits there, his knees bent toward his chest with his arms hooked together beneath them. His shoulders are curled into himself, and he keeps his empty gaze set on his feet. Jungkook turns the water on. He kneels beside the tub, not closing the drain yet so they can try to wash the blood from him before he soaks in it. Jungkook fills a cup with warm water, and he pours it down Taehyung’s shoulder. It barely gets any of the blood away, because it has dried on by now. Perhaps it is permanent. Perhaps he deserves to look like the monster that he is. Jungkook pours another cup of water onto him while his hand so gently runs down with the water, carefully washing the dried blood away. Taehyung does not look at him, but the sadness he feels through the bond is enough to know the look that must be on his face.

Silently, with only the sound of the running water in the bathroom, Jungkook slowly washes the blood from one of his shoulders. “Can I have your arm, sire?” he asks quietly. Taehyung does not move, but he lets Jungkook lift his arm. Taehyung hears a whimper, because Jungkook must see the marks he gave himself there. He does not look. He does not want to see how he mutilated himself, or the look on Jungkook’s face when he sees it too. His whole body flinches when he does not feel water pouring onto his forearm, but lips gently pressing there.

Taehyung finally looks over. Jungkook looks into his eyes as he kisses the healing mark a centimeter away. Taehyung’s eyes fill with tears as he watches Jungkook gently kiss his wounds, and the tears slide down his cheeks when Jungkook’s eyes close while he kisses him again. He doesn’t look away again. He keeps his eyes locked on Jungkook as he begins to wash away the blood on his arm. He is so gentle with it that he can barely feel it. He wants to tell him that he does not need to be gentle, that he can handle pain and it would be deserved, but he does not think he can speak. He just watches silently as Jungkook washes the blood from his arm, the waterfall cascading off of him a dark red. Even when Taehyung’s arm is clean, it does not look that way. The lines he cut up and down the length of his arm are so wide and deep that he still looks as if he were covered in blood. His skin looks like he has been dyed by it, but he knows it is because he was burned.

He should be rejoicing that Jungkook is here. He should be crying in relief, in gratitude. He should be celebrating and making promises and kissing him everywhere he can reach. But he does not feel anything. He feels depleted. And he does not do anything. He is not sure he could even if he tried.

“Can you hear me?” Jungkook asks quietly. Taehyung slowly moves his eyes from his hand on his arm to Jungkook’s face. He does not move his head or say a word, but Jungkook must still be able to read him anyway. “Are you able to speak?” Taehyung still does nothing. He wonders if Jungkook is remembering a moment so similar to this over a century ago.

“That’s okay,” Jungkook says softly. “We have a long, long, long time. We can take our time in anything we do.” Jungkook guides Taehyung into turning his body around so the other side of him is facing Jungkook and he can start to wash the blood away from that side of him. Thankfully this arm does not have scratches on it since it was the arm being restrained, but they have not gotten to his neck yet. It makes Taehyung remember Jungkook’s own neck, and the part of it he took from him. He doesn’t have the ability to look right now.

But just–he… It will use what is left in him, he thinks, probably for a long while, but it is what is most important to him. Jungkook, and that he knows. It takes as long as it does for Jungkook to clear the dried blood from him for him to say so, so quietly, “I love you.”

He watches Jungkook bite the inside of his cheek as he tries to hold back the tears that rise in his eyes. Jungkook’s trembling hand comes and settles on his cheek, both things covered in blood. He brushes his thumb back and forth. Jungkook continues biting the inside of his cheek, his eyebrows furrowing and smoothing out and furrowing again as he clearly tries so hard to keep himself from crying. What must be an entire minute later, he finally says, his voice so weak, “I love you, Taehyung.” A shaky breath. He looks deep into his eyes. “I love you, Tae. A-And we won’t talk about things right now, b-because I think we both need a little bit of time, and some time to rest. But, Tae, I will never, ever leave you, and I will never stop loving you. Nothing has ever been more certain, more of a promise, more true than that. I will always be right here, in love with you.” Taehyung does not say anything, and Jungkook says nothing more either. He tilts his head back for him so he can start to pour water down his hair to try to wash some of the blood away, then on his neck and face too.

Taehyung feels Jungkook’s fingers bury in his hair, and he begins to wash it, just like he did the first time they touched. He is thorough with it, trying to scrub out all of the matted blood. Taehyung feels as though he will never be clean again. He will never feel clean again. There is too much blood weighing him down, and he does not deserve the blood that is inside of him, Jungkook’s, theirs. Jungkook should drain him dry until he is only skin and bones. He scratches his scalp, and it does a good job of banishing most of his thoughts. He tilts his head back for him and begins to rinse the shampoo out of his hair. The soap bubbles rush down his back and shoulders, making him feel a little bit cleaner too.

And finally, around an hour later, once he is clear of blood, Jungkook plugs the drain and allows the tub to fill with water. Taehyung stays right where he is – his knees to his chest, arms hanging at his sides, shoulders curled in, watching his feet through the water in the tub, then watching iridescent bubbles obscure them.

“Can I join you?” Jungkook asks. Taehyung thinks he manages a small nod. Either way, he hopes Jungkook knows that the answer to him will always be yes. He is Jungkook’s.

He hears Jungkook step into the tub behind him. He watches his legs slide out on each side of him once he has settled himself in. Then, gently and slowly, Taehyung is pulled back. He is pulled between Jungkook’s legs, and turned so that his side is leaning against Jungkook’s torso, his head tucked beneath his chin. Jungkook holds him just like that, cradling him, keeping him close, held warm and safe in the lavender-scented water. His head is tilted up for him, so that his face is beside his neck. Right by his bite wound, where the scent of his blood is so near. Taehyung closes his eyes as he breathes him in. He finally feels himself begin to relax, held in his fledgling's arms.

“Tae,” he finally says many silent minutes later. “You know how strongly you feel about how you’ll never leave me? About how you’re certain we’ll be together forever as long as it’s up to you? How insane the thought of leaving me is to you? Baby, that’s how I feel too. Please, please know that. That if something happens that seems that way, it’s because of something you’re not understanding, and I’ll tell you about it. And the explanation will never be that I’m leaving. Because I’m not. Not ever. Please believe me, Tae. I’ll never leave you. I–I love you so much. You’re my sire and my baby and my soulmate. We love each other enough that I came back so we can find each other, what, a hundred and twenty-four years later? I wish you knew how devoted I am to you. I’m here by fate, and I’m here by choice. I’d choose you in every single lifetime, no matter how hard or easy it was to stay. And it’s so easy. It’s the easiest thing, to love you and be with you.” Taehyung just silently cries, tears dropping from his cheeks and down into the water, creating a small ripple.

Jungkook tilts his head up for him, and he kisses him. Taehyung cannot find a way to kiss back, but it does not stop Jungkook. He kisses his lips over and over again, long presses of his lips and short pecks, not even caring that Taehyung is just sitting here in his arms and doing nothing more.

He leans back to look into his eyes. Even though Taehyung knows his eyes are empty, he hopes Jungkook can still see the love that is there, painted in his irises. “We have a whole lifetime,” Jungkook says softly. “A lifetime that doesn’t stop. You can take your time to rest. And I’ll be here to take care of you throughout, even once you feel okay enough to talk again. Even a century after that. I’ll always be here, sire. My baby.”

Taehyung tucks his head back into Jungkook’s neck and closes his eyes. He tries to focus only on the feeling of being held safely in Jungkook’s arms. That it is okay to be so small and bare right now, because he is being cared for and protected.

They stay in the bathtub until the water turns cold. Jungkook unplugs the drain and allows some of it to go down, then he plugs it again and fills the tub with more hot water again.

Jungkook lifts Taehyung’s arm. He looks at his forearm, to see how the gashes are healing. Taehyung does not have it in himself to look. But he feels the soft presses of Jungkook’s lips up and down each one. It makes his toes curl, and that is something. Jungkook tightens his arms around him, and they stay in the bathtub until the water turns cold again.

– ☾ –

Taehyung looks around the room when Jungkook leads him to their bed. It’s a horrible, broken mess. There are cracks in the walls, dust on the floors from it. Their bed post is broken, and furniture is thrown out of place. There is blood everywhere. It is dried onto the floor, seeped into the fabric of the rug, splattered onto the furniture, still pooling in some spots. It looks like a crime scene.

“Let’s go stay in one of the other rooms,” Jungkook says softly. He helps him put a robe on, and they slowly walk down the hall, to one of the guest rooms in their wing of the manor. Jungkook helps him into the bed. Taehyung is a vampire. His body should not ache in this way. He did not even know it could. The bath helped loosen some of his muscles, but it still feels as if an immense strain was put on his body. He supposes that emotional pain does not heal as quickly as physical pain if the two are intertwined.

Jungkook rests his head on the pillow for him and covers him in the blanket. He slides into bed beside him and takes him into his arms. “We should rest,” Jungkook says softly. “We could use the sleep.” Taehyung does not say anything. He just closes his eyes. He only stays awake for long enough to feel the kiss Jungkook presses to his forehead, then he passes out.

Chapter Text

Taehyung slowly blinks open his eyes. He hears a rush of air as the body beneath his deflates. “Jesus,” Jungkook says, his tone full of emotion. Taehyung does not say anything, but he looks at him. Jungkook sighs again and closes his eyes, as if he is gathering himself. He opens his eyes and says, “I–fuck, I thought you were dead or something. You’ve been passed out for three days. You haven’t even moved, a-and you don’t breathe, and I didn’t want to move you to feel your heartbeat and wake you since you needed the rest, so I told myself that if you died I’d be able to feel it, either through the bond or through something else, a-and I could still feel you through the bond because I could feel you resting, but fuck, god, thank god.”

Taehyung thinks the three straight days of rest did him well, because he is able to move on his own. He is able to roll off of Jungkook’s body and lay on his side beside him. He is able to lift his arm and brush some hair out of his face, then rest his hand on his cheek. He still cannot speak, but he can do this.

“I love you, Tae,” Jungkook says softly, studying his face. Taehyung nods softly. He can see the relief on Jungkook’s face. Even if he is not better yet, it is something. It is much more than he could do three days ago.

He lets his arm fall, but Jungkook takes it. He looks at his forearm, and Taehyung does too. The wounds have healed, but a scar remains. Five thick lines down his arm, the scars lighter than his skin color. If scar tissue has already formed, he does not think that it will fully heal. Taehyung stares at it. His eyebrows twitch, and he bites the inside of his cheek just like Jungkook was doing when he was cleaning him in the bathtub. He looks at the big scars until his vision is obscured with tears.

“It’s not ugly,” Jungkook says softly, somehow knowing exactly what he was thinking. He gently brushes his tears again. “It’s not, not at all.” All of these years of life that he has made it through, and somehow he now has these giant scars that make his arm look dismembered. He didn’t even know he could scar, and to have such huge, obvious ones? He watches as Jungkook takes his arm, and he kisses them softly, just like he had been doing when they were still healing.

“They’re not, baby,” Jungkook says quietly, looking into his eyes as he kisses them. “Do you think mine is?” He lets his head fall to the side, and Taehyung sucks in a breath.

There is a scar there too. From him. From the bite he took out of him. His skin mended back together somehow, but there is a scar around the edges, where his teeth dug in. A scar in the shape of Taehyung’s mouth. A-And maybe it makes Taehyung horrible and unworthy, but he likes it. It is another mark of him on Jungkook. It is another way that he can never leave him. Even if Jungkook left him one day, he would carry that mark forever. He would look in the mirror and think of him.

“You should feed,” Jungkook says softly, knowing Taehyung does not find the scar anything but beautiful. “It’s been three days. I need to too.” Quietly, a little scared, “Is that okay with you? That I f-feed from you?” Taehyung does not know why it wouldn’t be. He nods. He holds out his arm, the one without the cuts in it. Jungkook takes it and offers up his own. They look into each other’s eyes as their fangs sink into their wrists, and they start to feed. Their eyes flutter shut at the same time, sighing in relief. The taste, the satisfaction of their hunger being sated, the feeling of feeding on each other, sire and fledgling, soulmate and soulmate.

Tahyung does not take too much. He feeds just enough to satisfy himself, then he pulls his fangs out and licks the puncture holes closed. Jungkook does the same.

And perhaps that is what else he needed to feel okay enough to speak again. Still not okay enough to feel normal again, but enough to be there at least a little bit. Jungkook can tell that it is coming, so he smiles softly as he waits.

Taehyung clears his throat. “I love you,” he says quietly.

They taste the blood on each other’s lips when Jungkook kisses him. “I love you, sire,” he whispers.

“I’m sorry.”

Jungkook shakes his head vehemently. “No. Do not apologize. You have nothing to apologize for.” His voice is firm, leaving no room to talk back. Taehyung is not really certain what he is apologizing for. For scaring him maybe, for hurting him, emotionally and physically. For making him see his sire and his soulmate seconds away from killing himself. For having to take care of him when he was covered in blood. For having to take care of him at all, when he is the fledgling. “Don’t apologize.” Taehyung does not say it again, but he thinks it. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Taehyung weakly shrugs. “I’ll say my part of it. You don’t have to say yours. Is that okay?” Taehyung weakly nods.

Jungkook takes a deep breath. Taehyung’s eyes don’t leave him. “Chan was teaching me how to tattoo, and you were hanging out with Felix and Jimin in the living room. I heard you get up and assumed you were coming to see me again, so I was focused on you. But you walked past our room, then I heard you open and close the front door. I thought it was weird, and something felt weird because I could feel you through the bond. So I got up and went and asked Jimin what was happening, and he had no idea what I was talking about. I looked out the window, and I saw Baekhyun coming through the forest, and you meeting him halfway. Jimin and some others, I don’t even know who, came and looked too. And then I saw you take Baekhyun's hand, and I could see you smiling at him, and I watched you walk into the forest together.

“And I immediately started to panic. I think Jimin thought I was panicking because I saw you holding hands and smiling with him and it made me, I dunno, doubt or made me jealous or something, but it wasn’t that because that would be so stupid. I know you’d never even look at someone else in any serious type of way, let alone smile at them or touch them. So I obviously knew something weird was happening, and so I ran outside to go after you. Some of them tried to yell after me, because they did think I was getting my feelings hurt or something, not that I was worried.”

At least there is that, Taehyung thinks thankfully. At least Jungkook knows that. At least Taehyung must love him enough for him to know that there will only ever be him.

“I shifted and flew off after you so no one would hear me. I caught up to you guys only at the very end of what happened, when you kicked him and left. I was going to turn around and go back to you, but Baekhyun was so mad. Tae, you should have seen him. I was honestly scared. He was screaming and tearing through the forest, running all around trying to find a weak spot where he could get in. And, Tae, he was so mad that I just–I had to do something.”

Taehyung’s stomach drops. He’s right here, he reminds himself. He’s here, lying in bed with me, safe, telling me a story softly. He is okay.

“It took forever before he finally gave up and went home since the sun was going to come up, and I flew after him and followed him. I found out where he lived, and, just–I won’t get into all of it, but I killed him.”

Taehyung blinks at Jungkook for several seconds. His lips part. He stares. His mind is a mess. “W-What?” he finally asks.

“Y-Yeah,” Jungkook said. “I heard him talking, I heard plans he was coming up with, ways to get to either of us or any of us that live here. How he’d get through, things he’d do, how he’d always be lingering around and he’d be there if we went into the city. Like it was–it was so much, and it was all really bad, and I knew that he meant what he was saying, and I didn’t want you or any of us to have to live with that, with knowing that he’s out there and would always be trying to come after us. So, yeah, I killed him, how you told me we’re supposed to with vampires. A-And then just in case, I left him in the sunlight so I was really sure he’d be dead. And then I left him and came back to you. And, well…”

“Jungkook, what?” Taehyung says. His voice is nowhere near as strong as he means for it to be, because he still feels so weak and small. “Jungkook, that was so dangerous, are you insane? He is older than you, Jungkook. He could have easily killed you.”

“Okay, not easily…” Jungkook mumbles as he pouts over this?!

“Jungkook, that was so reckless.” His voice is firmer now, sounding like a sire scolding his fledgling. Jungkook curls his shoulders in like it. “You could have died. He could have killed you.” He does not speak it, but he knows they are both thinking of how Jungkook saw precisely what would happen if left without him. Taehyung tries not to get angry, especially when Jungkook has been so sweet and kind to him these past several days, taking care of him so selflessly, but he can’t help it. This could have ended horribly, in so many different ways. “You cannot do things like that anymore, do you hear me? If there is something you are thinking or want to do, you tell me. You do not run off and do something so impulsive and reckless on your own.”

“B-But, he wanted to kill you, and he was going to be trying! He–”

“And I could handle it, Jungkook. You could have told me, and we would talk about it, and I would take care of it, either alone or together. I was going to do it first, but I didn’t want to cause a scene with our guests here.”

Jungkook looks down at Taehyung’s collarbones as he fidgets with his shirt, looking like a child being scolded. “I’m sorry, sire,” he whispers, not meeting his eye.

Taehyung takes a moment to compose himself. He reminds himself that, while extremely stupid, this was done out of love and protection for Taehyung and their family. It was done because he wanted to keep them safe. And Jungkook killed someone; that might be hard for him to grapple with.

He takes a hold of Jungkook’s chin and tilts his head up. Jungkook still is only looking down at his own hands. “Look at me, little fledgling,” Taehyung says. Hesitantly, Jungkook obeys. “I am just upset because of what could have happened. I am upset because I could have lost you, and your life ending would be my life ending too. I love you more than anything, my darling. It is why I am upset that you would put yourself in harm’s way. But I am sorry for the way I have spoken. I am sorry for sounding so harsh and raising my voice. I know this was done to protect me, which was very sweet of you. But please do not do something like that again, okay? I want you to tell me anything you hear that might be dangerous and not go off on your own to try to face it. Okay?”

“Okay…” Jungkook says quietly. “I’m sorry.” Taehyung leans in and kisses him softly, his lips lingering for several seconds.

“Did you get hurt?” Taehyung asks. Jungkook shakes his head. “Are you telling the truth?” Jungkook nods. Taehyung sighs. At least there is that. “And how are you feeling? How were you feeling? After you did it and now.”

Jungkook weakly shrugs. “I didn’t feel anything after,” he says. “The only thing I felt was a little bit of panic over not feeling anything after killing someone. I don’t mean ‘not feeling anything’ because I went numb, but because I just didn’t care. And then I started to panic that it makes me bad that I didn’t care, but I just–it was to protect you, and I’d do anything and kill anyone to do that. So that was probably why.”

“I understand the feeling,” Taehyung says softly. He did go numb after all the other times he killed people, but when it was about protecting Jungkook, all he felt was that extreme sense of protection, because he would do anything to keep Jungkook safe. “Well, that is good, I suppose. But I do not want you to kill anyone again, okay? Unless they attack you or any of us, then that is fine. But please do not go anywhere – especially alone – to kill anyone. I cannot live without you, my love. I cannot. Please do not make me face that.”

“I’m sorry,” Jungkook says again quietly. “I won’t.” He meets his eye again. “I can’t live without you either, sire. And I was just seconds away from having to.”

Taehyung presses his lips together and swallows down his whimper thinking of forcing Jungkook to live alone without him. He probably traumatized Jungkook from forcing him to see what he saw. “I’m sorry,” Taehyung says quietly this time. “I was a little rash, I suppose,” he attempts to joke, but it falls flat. He sighs. “I am sorry, my love. I am sorry you saw that.” He looks at Jungkook, and his heart aches and his panic rises seeing the way his eyes have already become bloodshot because of the extent of his crying in just a few seconds. Taehyung wants to cry knowing he was probably keeping this inside for so long to focus on him instead. “Oh, my sweet boy,” he says, his voice cracking. He rests his hand on Jungkook’s cheek, attempting to brush the tears away, but they are falling too quickly. “My sweetheart, my darling. I am here. Sire is here, love. I’m right here. I will always be here with you.” It is as if Jungkook cannot even hear him, he is inconsolable. Taehyung can feel his despair and his panic through the bond, and it is mixing with his own, because he does not know what to do.

He remembers something that used to calm Jungkook, over a hundred years ago when he loved him for the first time. When someone came and killed his favorite horse in the stable – one he raised from birth through its adulthood – and he watched it happen and believed it to be his fault. When he came down with the flu, and it was bad enough that Taehyung feared he would not make it through, and he still refused to turn him because he was scared. When Taehyung refused to feed from him for a long time, and, on a walk, saw him feeding from another human. Times when Taehyung tried to hold him and talk to him but nothing worked until he tried something in his panic, something that always made them feel close to one another.

“Here, my love, sit up for me,” he says. He helps Jungkook sit up as he sobs, his whole body heaving with the power of it. Taehyung hesitates, because he does not want to leave Jungkook’s side for even a second. He has a quick, strange idea, and he goes with it. As he whispers to Jungkook, he begins to stroke his cock, trying not to be obvious about it. It does not take long for him to get hard – not because he is turned on, but because he knows he needs to be hard to able to calm Jungkook.

He bites his own wrist, and he lets his blood drip down onto his cock. He strokes himself off with it, then he moves Jungkook onto his lap. Jungkook just allows himself to be moved any which way Taehyung desires. He lifts Jungkook with his clean hand, then he says, “I’m sorry, my sweetheart,” because he has not stretched Jungkook at all before lowering him down onto his cock. Jungkook’s sobs make room for a hiccuping moan as he takes more and more of him. Taehyung watches every minute expression on his face until he is fully seated in his lap.

Taehyung licks the bite mark on his wrist closed. He gives Jungkook his hand. “Clean me up, darling,” he says. Jungkook begins licking all of the blood from his hand as tears slide down his cheeks. He is still crying, but no longer sobbing, because this has always helped ground Jungkook.

“Makes me feel closer to you,” Jungkook once said, over a century ago. “Like, I dunno, you’re holding me so closely, so I’m safe and I’ll be okay.” Taehyung wanted to cry then, just as he does now with the way Jungkook tucks his head under his chin, no longer crying.

It is the same for Taehyung too. Whether they are as they are now, or he is in Jungkook’s spot. Such a feeling of closeness that is difficult to achieve in other ways. And with the warmth of the bond too, it is a closeness they have not fully felt before. Taehyung thinks it calms them down the rest of the way to allow themselves to be mended. To come back home to each other.

“You should not have had to experience that, my love,” Taehyung says softly, his hand running up and down Jungkook’s back. “I am sorry. I should have been more rational. I just–” he sighs. “You were gone, and I remembered the way it felt to lose you. It all came rushing back, and I just–I could not go through that again. If you were gone, I would be leaving with you.”

“What did you think happened?” Jungkook asks quietly.

“I don’t know,” he says. He was able to be rational about it for only a couple of minutes before it turned into something else. He hates how easy it is to accept that this could be ending. His fears are more powerful than he is. His love for Jungkook is too powerful to be rational sometimes. The darkness inside of him feels too close to be able to fight it off sometimes, especially when it feels so loving because it would take away the pain. “At first, from what Jimin told me, I thought that you had seen me and Baekhyun holding hands and walking off together, and you thought I was going to be with him.”

Jungkook quietly scoffs. “Yeah right,” he mutters. “I would never think that.”

Taehyung sighs. “I just was not thinking rationally because you had left. It was so easy for my panic to rise, then to turn into something else. And the sun was going to be out soon, so I did not know if you would have protection, or if you would still burn if you were a bat.”

“I didn’t,” Jungkook says, sounding proud. Taehyung does not bother scolding him for that being something he even knows.

“I just,” Taehyung sighs, “I am so sorry you had to experience that, little fledgling. You should not have had to see that. And you will not again. I will always be here, my love. I am sorry. I just cannot lose you. It would be the end of me. You are my life. I love you so much, Jungkook-ah. I want us to be together always.”

Jungkook leans back. He rests his hand on his cheek. “We will be,” he says with certainty. The way he kisses him feels like a promise too.

– ☾ –

With shaky knees, Taehyung seeks Jimin out. He can hear his mates in the living room, so he hopes it means he is alone in their living quarters. He has spent hours trying to prepare himself to face him. Jungkook has been so sweet in his encouragement, but Taehyung is so scared. He feels so horrible, and the only thing that made him go through his fears is the knowledge that Jimin probably feels even worse.

When he reaches his bedroom, he gently knocks. “Come in,” Jimin says softly.

Taehyung takes a breath and enters. Jimin is sitting on the couch, his phone in hand. He looks over. Everything immediately becomes tense, the air thick with discomfort. “H-Hi,” Jimin says.

“Hello,” Taehyung says. He hesitantly walks over to him. He gains his nerve back with each step because he remembers how badly he must have hurt him, and how badly he needs to make up for it, if there could ever be a way. But there can be a start.

When he is standing in front of Jimin, he drops to his knees.

He hears an intake of breath from Jimin. He bends down until his forehead touches the ground in a deep bow with his arms out in front of him. “I am sorry, Jimin-ah,” he says, holding back his tears. “I am sorry for the way I continually treat you. For the way I continually hurt you. You are the best friend I have ever had, and I do not want to ever lose you. I do not know what I would do without you, and the way I act and the things I say do not reflect that. Do not reflect my deep, pure, all-encompassing love and appreciation for you.” He rises up again, but he still hangs his head, feeling like he does not deserve to meet his eye. “The way I treat you, and the things I put you through do not deserve forgiveness, and if you were any less of an angel, you would have left long ago. I want to deserve you being here. I want to deserve having someone like you in my life. I am so, so sorry if you have ever doubted the love I have for you because I do not act in accordance with those feelings. I am so sorry that I have to apologize to you so often. You deserve kindness and love and to be treated with those things, and I do not do that. I am so sorry for the things that I put you through. You are the best person I have ever known, Jimin-ah, and I will spend eternity trying to make up for the way I have treated you if you allow me to.”

Taehyung finds himself staring up at the ceiling as Jimin tackles him onto his back. He latches onto him as much as he can lying down. Jimin is crying, and it makes Taehyung begin crying too. He wraps his arms around Jimin, hugging him and hoping it doesn’t end for hours.

“I’ll forgive you if I can have twenty-four hours of undivided Taetae time,” Jimin says as he sniffles.

Taehyung laughs. He does not deserve Jimin. But he says, “What about forty-eight?”

“Even better,” Jimin sighs as he nuzzles against his neck.

“B-But, just–”

“Not yet,” Jimin says. “I know you and Jungkookie probably want to be together after everything. But I will be cashing in my deal soon.”

It does last an hour. So long of just holding each other until Jimin pulls Taehyung up with him. They look horrible, like they have been crying inconsolably for the past hour. Jimin holds his hand and walks them to the couch in their bedroom, and he doesn’t let go once they sit.

“Tae,” Jimin says softly. Taehyung swallows. He keeps his eyes trained on their hands. He cannot meet Jimin’s eye. He does not deserve the softness he will find in his gaze. “Look at me.” Taehyung listens. He bites his lip to keep back more tears that want to come. Jimin is so… Jimin cannot be put into words. He really is the best person that Taehyung has ever known. He cannot lose him. “These past few months have been a lot for you. Seeing a human that caught your eye, which was very weird for you. Getting a fledgling. Falling in love with him. All of that is a lot for you, and now pile on all the other stuff? You and Jungkook being s-soulmates and f-finding your way back to each other?” He pauses to take deep breaths because he becomes choked up every time they talk about it. It makes Taehyung laugh, which helps hold back Jimin’s tears. “All of that is so much. It’s so emotional, so many different feelings to sit with and experience. You’re being jerked back and forth all the time, trying to take care of Jungkook while knowing who he is and who you guys are and what happened last time. It’s all so much. So of course you’re going to get emotional sometimes, and it’ll come out around all of us. It’s okay if you have outbursts sometimes; we all expect it.” Taehyung can feel Jimin’s hand start to shake. “B-But, Tae… What happened the other day…” Taehyung presses his lips together, keeping his tears at bay. “Tae… You and Jungkook are soulmates, but you’re my soulmate too. A-And you can’t leave me here. Okay, Tae? You can’t. You’re my best friend. I can’t live without you.”

“I feel the same way,” Taehyung says, but it comes out as a sob. He cannot even imagine a life without Jimin. He was–god, he was so rash. In retrospect he would laugh if only it were even slightly funny. Just, the mere mention of a life spent without Jungkook again could send him right back outside, begging the sunlight to burn him.

But Jimin is right. All of this just happened. Finding Jungkook, acquiring a fledgling, finding out just who that fledgling is. It is all very new, and he knows that with time, he will be better adjusted. At least he assumes so. Well, he hopes.

He stays with Jimin for a few more hours, talking about serious things that have just happened and things off the topic that just come into their heads, before he goes to make the rest of his apology rounds. His friends are the best people he knows, which is why they all end up consoling him more than the other way around. He ended the evening with sending off a text to Felix and Chan to apologize as well before finally retiring to their bedroom. With Jungkook still hanging out with their friends, it leaves Taehyung to lie on their bed alone, trying to calm down from a tiring day of vulnerability.

He looks over when their bedroom door creaks open and he sees Jungkook peek inside. “Hi,” he says from the doorway.

“Hello,” Taehyung says, an eyebrow raised.

“Do you want to be alone?”

“Alone with you, yes. Alone by myself, not if I can have you.”

“Are you sure?” Jungkook asks, still standing in the doorway.

Taehyung rolls onto his side to look at him. “Very sure, my darling.”

Jungkook scurries into the room and closes the door behind him, then he joins Taehyung in bed. “You had a long day,” Jungkook says, cozying right up to him. “Thought you might want to be alone.”

“I would choose to be with you at the end of my longest days,” Taehyung says, wrapping both arms around his little fledgling. Such a sweet boy, safe in his arms. Jungkook begins to purr, and it fills Taehyung with warmth. His sweet little fledgling, purring in his sire’s arms.

“Did you notice our room?” Jungkook asks, nuzzling against him as he continues to purr.

“What do you mean?”

“Look at everything.”

Taehyung looks around the room for several seconds, confused, before it hits him.

Their broken bed post. The outline of his body in the wall. The puddle of blood stained on the ground, the broken furniture, the mess thrown around. It is all gone. It is as if that day never happened, or at least not in this room.

“They all cleaned and fixed everything,” Jungkook says. “While you were asleep for days.”

Taehyung sighs. He will never be able to make up for the pain and trouble he has caused, but he will spend every day of his life trying.

Taehyung tilts Jungkook’s head up. They lock eyes, and Jungkook’s purring only intensifies. “Just a purring, cuddly fledgling in your sire’s arms, aren’t you?” Taehyung asks softly. “Just want to be held by your sire, is that right?” Jungkook nods, his eyes closing to nuzzle against Taehyung’s palm. Taehyung wants Jungkook to always need him. He needs Jungkook to always need him. “And how are you, my little fledgling? How do you feel?”

“A little tired,” Jungkook says. “But mostly okay.”

“I understand,” Taehyung sighs. “We could use the rest.” Not physical rest, because they did a lot of sleeping. They just need time to take it slow so they can catch up to themselves. “And how are you feeling as a fledgling, hm? How are you feeling about your stage in vampirehood?”

“O-Oh,” Jungkook says, like he hadn’t thought about it. It makes sense considering everything else that has been happening, even prior to this mess. “U-Um, well… I dunno? Good?”

Taehyung chuckles. He leans in and kisses Jungkook’s lips, just once. “Do you feel settled in your body? With your strength and new abilities?” Jungkook nods. “And what about your thirst? Do you feel confident in your ability to control it?” Jungkook nods again. “What if we were in a crowd of humans. How would you feel then?”

Jungkook’s eyebrows furrow as he tries to envision it. Cute dimples are carved into his cheeks as he thinks deeply, and Taehyung could collapse into a puddle of tears when he sees the very tip of a little fang poking against his lips, as if his fangs slightly drop when he concentrates. “I think I’d be okay,” he finally says. “B-But only if you’re with me. If I was alone or with the others, I dunno, but with you, I’d be okay.”

Taehyung tilts his head to the side. “And why is that?”

“I–I dunno. I think maybe because I feel calmer with you, so if I had you, I wouldn’t be so on edge about blending in and behaving and not attacking anyone. It’d be easier with you there. And if I did slip up, you could stop me quickly. The others could too, but you’re good at talking to me after. About what I did wrong and how I could do better, and not making me feel bad for messing up. None of the others make me feel bad, but they don’t make me feel good in the way you do. So I think I’d be okay if you were with me.”

Fitting in nicely, Taehyung asks his next question, “And how do you feel with me, my darling fledgling? How do you feel with me as your sire?”

“I feel like I have the best sire in the entire world,” he says, sounding so completely genuine. “I would give you a perfect score.”

Taehyung laughs. He is being silly, but being told that makes everything in him sing. “Are there any concerns you would like to raise? Any critiques or comments? Anything you would like me to do or stop doing?”

Jungkook’s hand rests on his cheek. He kisses Taehyung softly. “I think you’re perfect, sire,” Jungkook says quietly. “You’re perfect. If I were more of a good person, I’d want you to go help other fledglings because of how good at this you are. But I’m not that good of a person and I’m selfish and not letting anyone else have you.” Taehyung laughs, allowing Jungkook to tackle him onto his back and cling to him possessively.

“No one else will ever have me,” he says, his head falling to the side as Jungkook’s fangs sink into his neck. “Never.” His hand runs up and down Jungkook’s neck, feeling their combined satisfaction as Jungkook feeds from the vampire who created him, and Taehyung feeds his fledgling.

Once Taehyung has fed from Jungkook a little bit as well, they burrow into their bed. They spent days in bed, but they have unlimited time, so they can indulge themselves and be lazy for as long as they want, especially when they need the rest.

“I am sorry that our relationship is just you constantly having to take care of me,” Taehyung says quietly, feeling so ashamed. “You should not have to take care of me this much. Especially when I am your sire.”

Jungkook leans back and looks at him, a deep furrow set between his eyebrows. “Not only is that completely not true to believe,” he says, “but you also can’t base our whole relationship around a few months when we have an eternity together. Jeez. At least give it some time.” Before Taehyung can argue like Jungkook knows he will, he forces him to accept it by moving on with, "Now it’s your turn. Tell me a story. A memory you have.”

Taehyung snuggles closer until they’re sharing the same pillow. He kisses him. Then he does it again, and many more times, just because he is so in love with this special, incredible boy.

“Hmm,” Taehyung hums as he thinks. He breaks out into giggles when Jungkook kisses him again, and keeps kissing him even though he’s kissing his teeth as he smiles. “My darling,” Taehyung says softly. He reaches up and trails his fingers down Jungkook’s cheek. “How I treasure you.” He sighs and kisses him once more.

“Well,” he finally says, “there was this one winter, long, long ago. There was a blizzard. It was the worst one that area had seen in decades, and I’m sure there has not been a worse one since.” Jungkook listens raptly, as if he was not there with him.

Then, because Taehyung is a mess and does not know how to ever be normal about his sweet Jungkook, he asks, “D-Do you remember that?”

“Yeah, of course,” Jungkook says simply.

Taehyung sighs. Jungkook always just looks so curious and sweet, and it’s just–it is so hard to believe this is real. “During this blizzard,” he continues, “my love – this very, very sweet, kind, wonderful, silly, reckless boy that I loved so deeply – and I were snowed in together.” Jungkook smiles as he blushes, and they remember it together.

Jungkook barreled up the old wooden stairs to their apartment, his cheeks and the tip of his nose red from the cold. His eyes were bright as he threw open the door and announced, “We’re snowed in! Well, not yet, but the whole village is shutting down because of the blizzard that’s coming!”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Taehyung asked. He stood at the stove, where he was preparing Jungkook’s dinner, just as he did every evening so there would be a warm meal for him after his day of work.

He was spun around and caged against the kitchen counter. Jungkook kissed him with a smile around the edges. “It means we have many days alone together,” Jungkook says, his eyes sparkling. “We can stay in bed as long as we want, and stay cozy inside, and watch the snow together, and do whatever we want because there’s nothing to interrupt us.”

Taehyung tucked a lock of hair behind Jungkook’s ear, same as he always does now. Perhaps it is a small way to take care of him, such a small way to groom him. “That sounds wonderful, my darling. I have been deprived of my Jungkook-ah.”

They sat at the kitchen table, and Taehyung watched as Jungkook ate his dinner and caught him up on his day. His days were mostly the same – either taking care of the horses, or going on trips with people who rent the horses for the day – but Taehyung listened raptly, because everything about Jungkook was important and interesting, especially if the stories were wrapped in his voice.

“And the blizzard lasted a week,” Taehyung says, lying in bed with that same boy over a century later. He thinks it could be blizzarding now, with the way the cold wind is whistling through the manor’s old windows. He does not turn his head to check because he is so enraptured by his love’s eyes. “It was such a wonderful time, but there was one day in particular.”

“I know which day this is going to be about,” Jungkook giggles in anticipation as he rubs his feet together like a cricket. “We should pretend we’re snowed in again. On one of the snowy days, we should pretend we’re snowed in and can’t leave our room and we can just cuddle and do things in our pajamas for days.”

Taehyung does not tell him that they essentially do do that as it is, no matter the weather. “That sounds fun,” he says. “We will do that. But on this one day in particular we were actually snowed in. You did not want to spend any of that time asleep, so you challenged yourself to stay awake. If not the entire time, then at least for a full day, despite my heavy discouragement and disapproval.”

“And your attempts at sabotaging,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung sighed, watching Jungkook sit in their bed, looking at the snowfall outside. “Please sleep, my darling,” he said. “It is the middle of the night, and you are awake out of pride and competition. It is not even time enjoyed awake, and we will be wasting an entire day tomorrow because you will be fighting to stay awake the entire time, or you’ll sleep even longer than you would if you went to sleep now.” He had been trying to persuade Jungkook into sleeping for the past hour, but Jungkook had taken this as a competition now, which meant there would be no swaying him. And it was proven when he did not even reply.

So Taehyung moved closer. He tried to pull Jungkook’s arms from around his legs, but Jungkook would not budge. Jungkook was a human though, and Taehyung was a vampire. He had never used his strength on Jungkook, despite his boy’s goading, and he put it to use for the first time now. He yanked Jungkook’s arms from around his legs, and Jungkook’s head snapped to him, eyes wide. Taehyung raised an eyebrow as he smirked. He had planned to just hold Jungkook, whisper to him as he played with his hair until he fell asleep, but he could hear the way his heartbeat picked up, and he did not miss the way his pupils dilated.

And even after he made Jungkook moan so beautifully when he came with Taehyung’s hand around his cock, he remained awake. Clearly struggling, but fighting against his tiredness because his boy was stubborn.

“Please, my darling,” Taehyung begged. “I will hold you as you sleep, or I can accomplish some chores, and our day tomorrow will be completely free.”

“No,” Jungkook says. “I’m staying awake.”

“Is this really time well spent for you?” Taehyung asked. He was growing rather frustrated now. “This is worth staying up for? Arguing?”

Jungkook looked away from the snow and met his gaze. “Yes,” he said. “I’d rather argue or fight with you than not be with you. Whether I’m sleeping or you leave. I’d rather have bad days with you than no days with you. And this is not a bad day; you’re just annoyed that I won’t listen to you.”

Taehyung softened. I’d rather have bad days with you than no days with you.

It was not done so manipulatively when he took Jungkook into his arms. With Taehyung’s back to the headboard of their bed, Jungkook curled into him, forming a little ball safe in his hold. “My darling boy,” Taehyung whispered. He kissed Jungkook’s head as he ran his hand up and down his arm. “If you wish to stay up, then I will not fight you. We can watch the snow together.” Not even a centimeter more of snow had fallen before Jungkook was sound asleep, finally resting in his lover’s arms.

“And now,” Taehyung says as they lie across from each other in bed, “when we have our snow days, you don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to.”

“That’s true!” Jungkook brightens. “We should make a list of things to do.”

Taehyung chuckles. “Well, there is not much we can do if we’re staying confined to our bedroom.” Slowly, Jungkook moves on top of him until he is lying on his back.

“There’s a lot of things we can do,” Jungkook says.

“Yeah?” Taehyung says with a smirk.

Jungkook nods, leaning down. “I’ll show you some of them,” he says against his lips before he presses his own there.

Chapter Text

“Darling,” Taehyung calls out as he walks into the living room. “Could you please remind me of how to send a text message? I am clicking the telephone icon but I do not see anything here that would allow me to type a message.”

Jungkook looks up from Jimin’s arm, very amused but very endeared too. “Yeah, c’mere, baby.” He looks even more amused when Taehyung blushes because he loves flustering him in front of their friends. The blush gets worse when Jimin giggles to himself. Taehyung holds out the phone to Jungkook, who says, “It’s this chat bubble right here, see? It looks like the chat bubbles that texts look like. So it can help you remember.”

“Ahhh, yes, yes,” Taehyung says, remembering now. “And I click here, and then I type in the recipient’s name?”

“Yeah, perfect,” Jungkook says once he’s watched him do everything right. “Good job.”

“Thank you, my little bat.” He leans down and kisses the top of Jungkook’s head. “May I sit in here with you two?”

“Of course, Taetae,” Jimin says, sounding offended that he’d even ask.

Taehyung sits on the couch beside Jimin’s chair, and he focuses on typing his message as the tattoo machine begins to whirr again. “Okay, I’m gonna start shading now,” Jungkook says. “And if I fuck it up you can’t be mad at me because you agreed to this.”

Jimin snorts. “I know, but you won’t fuck it up.”

“He is correct,” Taehyung pipes up. “I watched you practice on the strange fake skin. You will do great, my love.” Then he tunes them out again as he focuses on slowly writing his message. He quickly tunes back in though to say, “I told you that I would be more than happy to allow you to practice on me, sweetheart.” He feels a little hurt that Jungkook turned down his offer.

Jungkook can hear the upset quality of his tone, so he stops what he is doing. “If you want a specific tattoo, then I will do it,” he says. “But I don’t want to just use your body for practice. I like you the way you are, and I’ll like you the way you are if you actually want a tattoo. But I don’t wanna just use you to practice.”

“So his body is too precious and pure to practice on but mine is okay for it?” Jimin says.

“Mhm,” Jungkook nods. He begins to tattoo again, snorting at Jimin’s affronted noise.

Taehyung watches for another minute. Seeing Jungkook like this… bent over Jimin’s arm, the tattoo machine in his hand as he focuses on his work, hair tied back in a bun. He looks very– Taehyung clears his throat and looks away. He looks very good.

After slowly chatting with Felix for an hour, Taehyung announces, “Felix, Chan, and their family will be coming over for the holidays. Not until the night though, so the seven of us can spend Christmas day together.”

“We’re celebrating Christmas?!” Jimin says.

“Mhm,” Taehyung says, setting the cellular phone aside.

“Couldn’t you have been born again sooner?” Jimin whines to Jungkook.

Jungkook snorts and wipes away some ink from Jimin’s arm. “I would have if I’d been able to control it.”

They talk about things they want to do for the impending holiday season, then it turns into a barrage of questions from Jungkook – about vampires, about them, about Jimin. He leans back, eyebrows deeply furrowed as he thinks of something. “Wait a minute. How do we have money if no one has jobs? And do we all share money?”

“Bank robberies,” Jimin says, watching Jungkook trace the lines of his tattoo’s stencil on his arm.

Jungkook looks up at Jimin. Then he looks at Taehyung. Taehyung doesn’t say anything. “Sire?” he asks, as if asking for the truth since Jimin is joking around.

But, “He’s telling the truth.”

Jungkook blinks at him. “No he’s not.”

Taehyung nods. “He is.” Jungkook stares.

“You can search the banks and dates on the internet if you want proof,” Jimin says. “We don’t have, like, a family checking account, but we just all have collective wealth. Namjoon gets paid a good amount from fledglings he helps. Others make money from little things here and there. But if we’re ever strapped for money, someone goes and breaks into a bank’s safe in the middle of the night and clears it out. We haven’t had to do that in a really long time though, because the manor is ours, and we have anything we’d want here, and if we do want something most of us will just steal it as long as we’re not stealing from an individual person and it’s a corporation instead. But yeah, that’s what we used to do. It’s been a while though.”

Jungkook continues to stare at him, his lips parted, tattoo machine in one hand and ink-covered paper towel against Jimin’s arm in the other. He finally looks at Taehyung and stares. “You guys are lying,” he said.

Taehyung shakes his head. “We’re not. I would not lie to you, darling, about anything. Neither of us are lying.” He shrugs. “Humans’ money is insured in banks, so if we clear out their safes, they are unaffected. The bank is a corporation, and other places we take from sometimes are corporations, which are much, much more evil than vampires are, so none of us have ever minded. We do not do things to harm individual people in that way, but businesses are a different story. It is probably harder to believe because you are picturing any of us with a black and white striped shirt on with a money sack over our shoulder and a black piece of fabric tied around our eyes, but it is more like quickly walking in and walking out when the bank is closed.”

“You literally rob banks,” Jungkook says. There is supposed to be a question mark at the end, but it comes out so deadpan that it sounds like a statement. Taehyung nods. “Do you swear on my life?”

“Well, I do not wish to ever swear on that and it will be the last time, but yes, I swear.” Jungkook’s eyes dart back and forth between the two of them. Jimin shrugs as he beams; Taehyung chuckles.

Then it turns into wry laughter when Jungkook asks excitedly, “Can I go next time?!”

Taehyung sighs. “If you would like to then I suppose, silly fledgling. We have not had to go in many years, so it will probably be a while until we do again.” He can tell that Jungkook will be looking forward to that for years and years. “It is not as theatrical as I am sure you are envisioning. Some of us force the doors open and fill our bags then disappear.”

They continue to spend time together for the remaining amount of time it takes Jungkook to finish Jimin’s tattoo. They talk about a couple of bank robbing tales because Jungkook is very interested in that, then it fades off into tales from Jimin’s life before coming to the manor, and a few memories Taehyung and Jungkook share about their old life together – which are not many because it leads into Jimin crying, and he needs to sit calmly for his tattoo.

An hour or so later, Jungkook shyly announces, “I think I’m done…” Taehyung and Jimin lean in to take a close look at it while Jungkook leans back to see it from a distance.

“My love,” Taehyung says softly, “this is so wonderful. You are so talented, sweetheart. Really, this is incredible. I cannot believe it is your first one. Here, show me how to take a photograph on my cellular phone so that I can show Chan what a talented little fledgling I have.”

As Taehyung takes photographs, he smiles hearing the praise Jimin showers Jungkook with, because he loves his tattoo too. It really is so wonderfully done. Neither of them had a single doubt that Jungkook would be incredible at this.

“I’m gonna go show Yoongi and Hoseok!” Jimin says, then he excitedly scampers off. “Thanks, Jungkookie! I love it!”

Taehyung watches Jungkook carefully clean up. He still takes all the health precautions necessary – disinfecting everything he used and the area they sat, safely disposing of the needle, washing his hands – and it is adorable considering they are vampires and are immune to the effects that any careless tattooing practices might bring about.

Finally, Jungkook looks at him and smiles. Taehyung returns it. “Are you proud, little fledgling?” Jungkook shyly nods. “You should be. It was beautiful, darling, and your first tattoo too. You did wonderfully, and Jimin loved it. I am proud of you.” Hearing his sire’s praise seems to have never worn off on Jungkook, because Taehyung can still feel those flutters of excitement and pride that he felt the first time.

They meander back to their living quarters, their joined hands lazily swinging between them. “How are you?” Jungkook asks.

“I am alright. How are you?”

“But how are you after… you know, everything…”

“Ah,” Taehyung says. After his dramatic suicide attempt, he presumes. He shrugs. “My burns still hurt, but they have mostly healed.”

“What about you though? Have you emotionally healed?”

Taehyung does not think he fully will for a long time. Just–the feeling of losing Jungkook, and the feeling of knowing he traumatized everyone he loves. It hurts, and it hurts more because he knows it hurts worse for the others. He shrugs. “I will get there,” he says. “You are here, so I will be okay.”

Jungkook lets go of his hand and wraps his arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. He kisses his temple. “I’ll always be here.”

– ☾ –

Taehyung smiles to himself as he watches Jimin chase Jungkook around the field and into the forest, then back out and across the property to the other side, making a trail of the two of them in the snow as they kick it up in a flurry. He hears Jimin yell, and Taehyung knows it is because as soon as Jimin was about to catch him and tackle him, Jungkook shifted into a bat, and probably made him tackle air and fall into the snow. And he is correct because Taehyung sees a little bat flying over to him, and he sees Jimin with snow on his outerwear.

Jungkook does his flamboyant little somersault in the air to hook his feet to the leather necklace around Taehyung’s neck and hang upside down with his wings wrapped around him. Taehyung laughs as he pets his head watching Jimin stomp over to them angrily. Jungkook is too cute as a little bat though that all of his misdeeds would be forgiven.

They and the rest of their friends continue their stroll through the field to the forest where Taehyung knows some pine trees have been growing for a long time. He can tell they are all very excited about this and all of the coming holiday season’s activities, and it makes his heart ache. He hates that they probably think he only cares about their happiness now that Jungkook is here, that he is only trying to be good now because Jungkook is here. And it is true that he wants to do everything he can to make Jungkook happy, but he didn’t not care about the others before. He just–he did not care about anything before. He really never even noticed when it was Christmas. He didn’t even really notice the changing of the seasons. Everything was bleak. Every day was just one long day that never ended while he waded through it, feeling nothing, noticing nothing.

So he will try to bring as much cheer to this holiday season as he can to try to make up for it in ways he can, and he has eternity to keep trying.

They walk through the forest, and he can tell that Hoseok is unnerved by the dark barrenness of it, just like Jungkook was the other times they’ve been here, as if there are not seven vampires here. They are what is dangerous; they are the predators, and he can see Hoseok's and now Jimin’s eyes darting around despite it. He knows Jungkook would probably be too if he weren’t hanging politely and peacefully from his necklace.

“This is like a Christmas tree farm!” Seokjin says when the forest starts to become more speckled with pine trees until it’s a forest of them on their own.

The beautiful pine trees are dusted in snow, sparkling in the light of the moon. It is a little unconventional to be doing this at night, since it is the only time they can all come out to do it, but it just makes the first year of this festive tradition more like them.

“They’re so pretty,” Jimin muses. He pouts. “I feel a little bad cutting one down.”

“What if we plant a sapling tomorrow night?” Namjoon suggests. “And every year when we cut a tree down, we can plant another in its honor.”

“That’s a nice idea,” Yoongi says, the rest of them agreeing and commending Namjoon for thinking of it.

“What about this one?” Hoseok asks, pointing to a tree in front of him. It’s tall and full and bushy, and it looks perfect. The rest of them agree too.

“Alright, now who would like to do the honors?” Taehyung asks, holding up the axe in his hand.

Before he has barely finished the sentence, vampire Jungkook is in front of him and saying, “Me,” as he snatches the axe from his hand. None of them try to fight it because he knows they all thought it would be Jungkook anyway, since he is the youngest of them all – the excitable child of the family.

Taehyung crouches down. He lifts up the bottom branches of the tree to reveal the stump, then he presses his finger against it. “See this spot right here?” he says to Jungkook. Jungkook nods. “Try to cut it here. This high off the ground. Okay?” Jungkook nods again, looking focused. “And please don’t cut my arm off.”

“You’re staying right there?” Jungkook asks, eyes wide.

“Well, you have to access the place to cut so someone needs to hold the branches away.”

“B-But–but–Jimin, switch with Tae.”

“Um?!” Jimin says, offended.

The rest of them laugh at the joke, but Taehyung thinks maybe he was a little bit serious too.

“You will not hit me,” Taehyung assures him. “Even if your aim was off, I can move fast enough to avoid being hurt. It will be okay.”

Jungkook does not look convinced, but the rest of them cheer him on enough that he gains back his confidence. Without any warning, he hacks into the tree stump.

And he also seems to forget the extent of his strength, because he chops right through the tree, and the suddenness of it makes the axe slip from his hand and fly across the forest, chipping into other trees’ stumps before it finally slams into one enough to stop and plop down into the snow.

They all stare blankly in that direction for a few seconds, the pine forest quiet and still around them. They all turn to look at Jungkook at the same time.

Jungkook looks at Taehyung first though. Taehyung knows he will always look to him first. “Uh, sorry…” he says sheepishly.

Taehyung chuckles. He allows the tree to gently fall when he stands. “You did wonderfully, my love,” Taehyung says, taking his hand to kiss it. “You are just a young little fledgling who forgot his own strength.” Taehyung knows how much he babies Jungkook, but it is because Jungkook is his baby. His little fledgling. “Why don’t you go retrieve the axe, then we will all carry the tree home.”

Jungkook grabs the axe and rushes back to them with it in his hand. Most of them flinch, because it feels like the equivalent to a toddler running around with scissors.

Taehyung, Jungkook, Seokjin, and Yoongi hoist the tree up and carry it through the forest, back to the manor. Jungkook whines when a pine needle pokes him, and they all tease Taehyung for making them stop so he can check Jungkook’s arm to make sure he’s okay, as if he is not a vampire – as if even a human wouldn’t be okay if poked by a pine needle. Taehyung just grumbles at the teasing, and they continue their treck home.

They’re stopped, though, by a sudden sound, and a, “Hey!” from Jungkook before he drops his part of the tree. He is not needed for strength, because any one of them could carry the tree on their own, but mostly just because it is an awkward thing to carry. So one less person is fine, but with Yoongi in the back letting go right after, it causes the tree to topple back. And when Taehyung, too, lets go with an affronted noise, the tree drops in the snow.

With melting snow trickling down his back from where it crept behind his sweater, Taehyung turns and finds Jungkook, who is beaming at him with another snowball in hand. Taehyung dodges it just in time, but in his new spot, he put himself right in the path of another snowball. He knows who it was because of Jimin’s cackle that follows it.

Taehyung bends down and grabs a handful of snow. He packs it into a ball, and he throws it right at Jungkook. Jungkook doesn’t even try to dodge out of its path; he just lets it collide with him as he giggles happily.

And in over two hundred years of Taehyung’s life, he is a part of his first snowball fight. With happy laughter and yelling beneath the dark sky, the seven of them all pelt each other with snow. With so many of them at once, it is impossible to fully dodge being the target when so much comes from every direction.

That is until Taehyung becomes the sole target. All six of the others silently agree to band together against Taehyung, who tries to run from them all as they launch their snowballs at him. “Hey!” Taehyung laughs, trying to make his escape. “This is not fair!” They are all laughing though, even him, whose face feels like it may crack from smiling so wide. He bends down and curls into himself to try to minimize the size of his target because he has just accepted the attack.

Once they decide to show mercy, they lift their tree up once again – looking a little wonky this time since it was dropped earlier – and continue their walk home. They stomp the snow off their boots on the porch, then they file inside the manor (with a couple of cats sneaking in as well). They walk to the living room, carefully set the tree in its stand, then secure it sturdily. They all walk backward and look at it. Smiles on their faces, cheeks and the tips of their noses red from the cold, looking as if they’re all human.

“Before everyone goes and changes into something more comfortable,” Taehyung says, “wait right here. You too, Jungkook.” Jungkook pouts, and Taehyung rushes across the manor to retrieve what he needs and returns just a few moments later.

Bashfully, Taehyung passes out a gift bag to each of his friends and his fledgling. “U-Um, you all may look,” he says. He nervously shuffles on his feet as they throw the decorative gift wrapping aside and reach into the bag. Taehyung blushes as if he’d been in the cold for hours at the way his family reacts, the cooing and the thanks and the shows of appreciation.

“I’m going to go change!” Jimin calls out and disappears toward his living quarters, followed by everyone else. And a few minutes later, they have all reconvened in the living room, wearing cozy matching Christmas pajama sets – all the same red flannel sets and slippers to match.

He just wants it to be a special Christmas. It is their first, and he wants them to have a nice time this season. And if something so small like this could have the big effect that he sees, he thinks it will be a good one.

Namjoon lights a fire in the fireplace, then they get to work. Well, some of them do. Taehyung, Seokjin, and Yoongi help one another wrap lights around the tree – passing the cord around to the person beside them as they nuzzle it between the branches – while Hoseok and Jimin lounge on the couch together and watch, and Jungkook talks Namjoon’s ear off about something.

Once the lights have been wrapped around the tree – warm white, rather than colorful – they all seem to realize, “Wait, but what about ornaments?”

“Well,” Taehyung says, already preemptively blushing. “I have something else for you all. One moment.”

He quickly goes upstairs, where he knows he can hide things because of how off-limits the entire second floor of the manor has always been. He gathers all six of the little boxes, and he brings them back down. They’re not wrapped, but they are still pretty, and not really meant to be gifts anyway. He passes each person their correct box, then he sits with them on the big L-shaped couch.

“S-So, I know that many families gather sentimental ornaments throughout moments in their life. But this is our first Christmas, and we haven't been doing that. I didn’t want to only have generic bulbs ornaments on the tree, so I spent some time thinking of ideas, and trying to find ornaments that, um, fit you all, or if I couldn’t, then reaching out to artists to create them. And I was so impressed that I could do that! All of this happening on the internet. B-But, anyway, yeah.”

It is silent as they all open the lids on their boxes, then it is a cacophony. Laughter and giggles and coos and screeches and “look at this!”s and affronted noises at some of the ways Taehyung sees them. So many sounds, so much movement, so much happiness. There are around seven or so ornaments in each person’s box tailored to them, some of them obscure and some of them on the nose – a stack of books for Namjoon, with his favorite titles painted onto the spines; a fishing pole with a fish hanging on the end for Seokjin, who goes fishing every summer while Namjoon reads on the dock; a cat curled up asleep on a cushion for Yoongi; a Takashi Murakami flower for their colorful sunshine Hoseok; half of a broken heart for Jimin that he looks down confusedly at, with BE FRI printed on, and when looked up at Taehyung to ask, tears came to his eyes when he saw his best friend holding the other half of the heart that said ST ENDS, because Taehyung learned of friendship necklaces and that that is their main design (and also led him to get friendship bracelets for him and Jimin as a Christmas gift, but much less tacky than the ones meant for pre-teens); and, of course, among many other things, a little bat for his Jungkook.

Taehyung is so involved with his excited friends as they show each other their ornaments that it takes a moment to notice Jungkook’s silence at his side. He looks over, and he’d forgotten what else is in the box.

Taehyung takes Jungkook’s hand. He presses his lips to the top of it. “Do you remember?” he asks quietly.

Several seconds later, Jungkook looks up at him, tears in his eyes. “Of course,” he says quietly.

“Do you celebrate Christmas?” Jungkook asked as soon as he barreled into the apartment out of the cold. He’d kicked off his boots and hung his scarf and jacket before Taehyung could even come over and do it himself like he always tries to. He still smelled vaguely of the stable downstairs, but the scent was always much more subdued in the colder months.

“Celebrate in what way?” Taehyung asked. He filled a bowl with warm soup he just made and cut a few pieces of homemade bread to put on a plate on the side. “With friends and family? No I do not.” He chuckled.

“But do you not celebrate it, like, religiously? Because you do something else?” Taehyung set Jungkook’s dinner on the table. He took Jungkook by the shoulders and kissed him. “Hi.”

“Hello, sweetheart,” Taehyung said. He steered Jungkook to his chair and forced him to sit, then he sat across from him and watched him eat. “If I had any type of faith, I would have had to abandon it long, long ago.”

“Do you want to?” Jungkook asked as he tore off a piece of his bread to dip into the soup. “This is really good, by the way.”

“I’m glad,” Taehyung said, hooking their ankles together beneath the table and feeling very pleased as he watched him eat. It is as if Taehyung were feasting on hot, homemade soup too with the way his chest felt warm. It was the strangest sensation that he noticed more and more with each passing month of loving his Jungkook. This warmth in his chest, so comforting and so ever-present it was as if it were something physical, something that had taken over what had once been his heart. “And do I want to what? Find religion again? No, I do not.”

Jungkook snorted. “No, celebrate Christmas.”

Jungkook did not have a family. He did not seem to have friends either, because he was alone before Taehyung came along. So it seemed as though he never celebrated Christmas either, and now he had a reason to. And Taehyung wanted to be Jungkook’s reason for anything, so he said, “If it is with you, then that sounds like a nice idea to me.”

They were unable to buy decorations that many people had, despite Taehyung telling him he could get them those decorations or the money to buy them. Jungkook always insisted that he liked their life as it was though, so nothing ever changed. And Taehyung was secretly glad for it, because this life was the first home he’d found, and it stayed the same. It was the same simple warmth he was first brought into.

So they did everything on their own. They made their own decorations. They fashioned all of the things they needed to. They carried a tree in from the forest, and they decorated it with things they were able to make. Popcorn garland, dried oranges and cinnamon sticks. A star on the top made of papier mâché and painted with gold accents.

While Jungkook slept one night, Taehyung recalled something he thought he saw during one of their walks. He quickly escaped to visit the area, and was excited to find that he was correct. A clay deposit, near their hidden pond. He came back the following night with a bucket and loaded it with clay, and returned to a cranky, awake Jungkook who had discovered he was alone in their apartment because his boyfriend had snuck off.

“Is this just something you do?” he asked accusatorily. “You leave while I sleep? You’re supposed to hold me the whole night!”

Taehyung quickly washed his hands then slipped into bed, pulling Jungkook into his arms. Grumpily, Jungkook slumped into him. “No, my darling, this is not something I do. It is only the second time, I promise you.”

“Second?!”

“Last night and tonight, because I was getting a surprise for you, cranky boy. Now let’s sleep because I can hear how sleepy you are, and I will show you in the morning.” Jungkook did not even fight it; he just fell right back asleep when he was held in his arms again.

And one night, when Jungkook did not work the following morning, they sat at their kitchen table, deep in focus as they made clay ornaments for each other but letting their minds wander as they talked.

And two of those ornaments, the only two Taehyung could find, are now in Jungkook’s hands, sculpted and painted and frozen in time.

“How do you have these?” he asks incredulously.

“I don’t know,” Taehyung chuckles wryly. “Same way I have no idea how I have my art of you, and I’m sure some more things up there from our life together. I don’t know.”

Jungkook looks back down at the ornaments, a smile on his lips as he carefully brushes the surface with his thumb in the same way he did when he made it himself over a century ago. “I’m glad there are still parts of it.”

“And the things we could not keep still live within us,” Taehyung says softly.

– ☾ –

“I can do it!” Jungkook says.

“Jungkook, you are not even the tallest one out of all of us,” Taehyung says. They are all standing around their tree at a distance, looking at the top, where a star waits to be placed in the spot of honor. But there is no way to reach it, and Taehyung has no idea where their ladder could be, if they even have one to begin with.

“Yeah, but I’m the only one with wings!”

“You’re gonna shift and fly it up there?” Yoongi asks. Jungkook nods. “Are you strong enough to even lift something like that?”

“I’m strong!” Jungkook insists. It is not done because he knows that as a fact – because he does not – but because that is just how Jungkook is.

“That sounds dangerous,” Taehyung says reluctantly. “What if you get hurt? What if it’s hard to fly and you crash into something?”

“Let’s test it out first,” Jungkook says. He doesn’t give any of them a moment to think about it or discuss it more, because he shifts. They all laugh or coo (or make a quiet noise of slight fear) when they see a cute little bat looking at them with big, dark eyes. Jungkook launches himself up from the floor and flies over to the star that sits on the coffee table. He crawls around it in the silly way he does – where he has to drag his tummy against the surface and use the claws on his wings to help, almost looking more like a scurry, because he does not have proper legs meant for walking like most kinds of birds do – to look for a good place to bite it securely. He goes to the very top and sinks his fangs into the tip of the star, then he attempts to fly with it in his mouth.

He only makes it a few inches before he falls back down again. Taehyung steps forward to tell him to shift back because this obviously is not going to work and it is stressing him out. He is interrupted by quiet little squeaks, as if Jungkook is arguing with him and telling him to give him another chance. Taehyung sighs and takes a step back, motioning for him to go on.

It is so silly how much he can tell that this bat – an entirely different species of living thing – is Jungkook. The way he takes a moment to steady himself and focus, and the way he can somehow tell Jungkook is resolving to do it this time in the competitive, headstrong way he is. He bites into the star again, and when he flies, he does not fall back down.

It is very slow and clumsy (and very, very stressful for Taehyung), but Jungkook manages to make his way to the tree carrying a star that is much bigger than his little body is. Taehyung steps closer, making sure he would be there to catch Jungkook the moment he struggles.

But Jungkook does not struggle in a way that will end badly. He makes it to the top of the tree, and he manages to fit the star right where it is supposed to go. He hovers beside it for a moment to make sure it will stay, then he flies back down as their friends cheer. But the excitement from their praise seems to be too much, because Jungkook excitedly starts to glide around the room, doing his silly acrobatics in the air as if his own excitement is too much for a little body.

He finally shifts and lands right next to Taehyung, slightly out of breath somehow, but beaming through it. “See! I could do it!”

Taehyung sighs. He pets Jungkook’s hair. “You did very well, my little bat.” The rest of them praise Jungkook too, and the warmth in Taehyung’s chest is a mix of Jungkook's and his own.

They stand back and look at the tree, and he could swear that feeling gets warmer, as if it is everybody in the room’s now.

The tree is beautiful. It emits a warm, quiet glow and sparkles with gold tinsel, and it is full of ornaments of them. Quirky, strange, sweet ornaments mixed in with some more generic ones that will become more and more scarce as more and more of their life carries on and they collect new ornaments that have sentimental value.

They fall onto the couch to relax after their hard work (some working harder than others) and enjoy the time spent together with the crackling of the fire. They only slowly trickle out of the living room and retire to their living quarters when the sun begins to rise. Taehyung receives a long hug from all of them, which isn’t something that happens often – mostly just from Jimin. But they all hug him, and Taehyung feels like he is doing something right.

With promises to the others that they will continue with more decorating tomorrow, Taehyung and Jungkook wander back to their own wing of the manor. “Did you have fun?” Taehyung asks his fledgling.

Jungkook nods, the happiness radiating off of him. “The only times I’ve ever celebrated Christmas have been with you,” he says softly. “And it was so nice the first year, but it’s so nice to do it with such a big family too. I–I’m happy that I’m a part of it. That you turned me and brought me into all of this and let me be here when you didn’t know who I was yet. It’s just–it’s very nice. I like it here.”

“Good,” Taehyung says softly. “I want you to like your life.”

When they get into their bedroom, Jungkook asks, “Can we lay in front of the fire again?”

“Anything my little fledgling wants.” Taehyung works on lighting the fire in the fireplace as Jungkook moves all of their pillows and blankets in front of it again. They pull the curtains closed so the sun cannot get in, and when Taehyung turns around, he bursts out laughing. “Well, hello, my naked darling.”

“Hi,” Jungkook giggles, getting comfortable on their makeshift bed, entirely bare. Taehyung does not even question it. Once he’s settled in, Jungkook says, “You too.”

Taehyung hesitates. “Oh, I–I’m okay.”

“Tae,” Jungkook says quietly.

They both know why he is hesitating.

Beneath his turtleneck that he put on under the long sleeves of his pajama shirt, he has scars that are not pretty to look at. He has done well at keeping them covered, since what he wears now is not different from what he has always worn, but– “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Jungkook says. “But I want to see you. I want to be with you like this.” Taehyung still doesn’t move. “Baby, I’ve loved you for so long. I think you’re the most beautiful thing that’s ever existed, from the moment I first saw you. And you looked much worse back then than you do now.” Despite himself, Taehyung laughs. Softly, “I think you’re perfect, Tae.”

Taehyung does not allow himself to think. He doesn’t hesitate or pause or look at Jungkook, he just takes his clothes off. He carefully folds his things and sets them on the bed, wanting to stall and stay turned away. He cannot linger any more though, and he slowly walks to Jungkook, taking his time as if he is trying to acclimate to frigid water.

But there is only warmth. The warmth of the fire, the warmth of Jungkook’s gaze, the warmth of their hands joined together when Jungkook slowly pulls him down. Taehyung lies down next to him. Jungkook’s gaze flits down from his eyes to his neck. Discomfort swirls murkily inside of Taehyung.

“I’m not going to just ignore that your scars are there,” Jungkook says. He looks into his eyes again. “I know you want me to, but I’m not going to.” Taehyung’s breathing stutters when Jungkook lifts a finger and drags it gently across one of the deep scarred lines on his neck. “They’re not ugly,” he says quietly. “In a fucked up way, it’s kind of physical proof that you love me.” He immediately feels the way Jungkook begins to feel guilty for having said that, the regret and unsureness rising inside of him.

Taehyung tilts Jungkook’s head up so he looks at him. “I suppose that is a way to make something unsightly seem beautiful,” he whispers. “They are marks of you that I carry with me.”

“Don’t give yourself any more,” Jungkook says quietly. “We already have so much of each other. You shouldn’t hurt yourself so we can see it more.”

Taehyung chuckles. “I am not planning on it,” he assures him, tucking a lock of his hair behind his ear. “As long as you stay by my side.” He pauses. “But perhaps I should not threaten to kill myself if you leave. I do not think that makes for a good incentive for someone to stay.”

Jungkook laughs, and it lightens the mood. He rolls onto his back and takes Taehyung with him. “I have way better incentive than that.”

“Oh, so my life being at stake is not enough for you to want to stay with me?” Taehyung teases as he pokes him in the ribs. Jungkook doesn’t respond beyond kissing him everywhere he can reach as they both giggle happily. Everything is okay and they are together and it is almost Christmas and it is a lovely life.

Somewhere amidst Jungkook attacking him in kisses, Taehyung had moved on top of him more and more until he is straddling his little fledgling, looking down at his sparkling eyes. And when he kisses him, it is a little less giggly and a little deeper. He whimpers against Jungkook’s lips when Jungkook’s hands go to his neck, and his thumbs gently run along the scarred lines there. It makes Taehyung’s entire body jerk away, but Jungkook holds him in place. Jungkook parts Taehyung’s lips with his tongue, and Taehyung lets him explore his mouth. He licks his tongue back with fervor, breath hot, swallowing each other’s sighs. He tries to focus on that and not where Jungkook is softly caressing his terrible scars.

Jungkook’s hands glide down his shoulders, his sides, and grab a hold of his hips. Before he is even guided, though, Taehyung starts moving. He deeply hums when their cocks press together, already slightly hard from kissing because they both knew that things were going somewhere in this direction. He kisses him deeper, takes control of it, and Jungkook allows him to. Jungkook lets him kiss him however he wants, he lets him move his hips as he pleases, controlling the pressure and the pace. Taehyung is usually the one allowing Jungkook to do anything he pleases, but here and now, and in many times like this, he knows the tables turn, and Jungkook is the one who guides him. Jungkook is the one who controls him and allows him and leads him because it’s so easy for him to wander like this, and Jungkook is his grounding hand.

“You sound so pretty, sire,” Jungkook says deeply against his lips as Taehyung moans and whimpers. Their cocks are hard now, dragging together clumsily as Taehyung keeps the pace. He moans so very loudly when Jungkook reaches between their bodies and adjusts their cocks so they are on top of each other, their bodies against the tops of their cocks, and each other’s against the bottom. The new slide of them together is slick with precum, making it so effortless and smooth and lovely. The heat of Jungkook’s cock against his own, the heat of Jungkook’s body against his own, the heat of his cheeks as Jungkook begins to praise him, because he always has. (“I don’t do it only because you like it,” he said one night over a century ago, together as they lay in bed, the proof of their love making drying on their skin. “I say things because I mean them. Because it’s hard to see you like this and not tell you that you sound pretty or that you look beautiful or that you’re so good at making me feel good.” Taehyung blushed the same then as he does now.)

“You’re so beautiful, Tae,” Jungkook says reverently as he looks up at him. Taehyung knows that he is flushed, that his hair is probably a mess, that he is unable to tame any facial expressions because the slide of their cocks together feels too good. “Faster, baby.” Jungkook controls what he does now, pulls him down closer, moves him faster. Their balls catch together each time, growing wet from their cocks too because of the way the precum is smearing around.

Taehyung rests their foreheads together, focusing more on the feeling of Jungkook’s cock against his own rather than the way his cock feels. “I love you,” he whimpers. He holds onto the sides of Jungkook’s neck, his thumb brushing back and forth against his own scar, where he took a bite out of him. He kisses him, wet and messy just like what else is happening. “I love you, Jungkook-ah.”

“I love you, sire,” Jungkook whispers back, a moan lost in there too amidst the crackling fire. “My baby. You’re my baby.”

Taehyung nods repeatedly, their noses bumping together. “I-I’m your baby,” he says. Taehyung cries when Jungkook plants his feet into the blanket and begins bucking his hips up, helping him, bringing them closer and closer to the edge.

“I love you,” Jungkook moans, and Taehyung comes without any warning. Neither he nor his body were expecting it, and he cries out as it courses through him. He unloads himself onto Jungkook’s stomach, and he can feel when Jungkook comes too, mixing their cum together. Taehyung continues to grind against him, smearing it together and prolonging their orgasms as they moan each other’s names.

Once they both start to twitch in oversensitivity, Taehyung finally stops. He collapses down onto Jungkook with a sigh from himself and an oof from Jungkook. And Jungkook sighs too when he wraps his arms around him and holds his sire close.

Taehyung nuzzles into Jungkook’s neck. He kisses his jaw. “I love you,” he says quietly.

“I love you, baby,” Jungkook says back. Taehyung falls asleep warmed by the fireplace and by his fledgling’s arms.

Chapter Text

“Tae, wake up, wake up!”

Taehyung is awoken by the bed rocking and bouncing as if he were asleep on a ship on the stormy ocean. He cracks his eye open and sees Jungkook and Jimin kneeling on the bed, jumping as much as they are able to in that position. Then Jimin takes one of Taehyung’s legs and begins to tug on it while Jungkook shakes his shoulders. Taehyung whines and closes his eyes again, trying to turn over away from them. “Somebody help, I’m being attacked by vampires,” he calls out weakly as his love and his best friend giggle.

“Taetaaaaaaaae, wake up!” Jimin says. “It’s Christmas!”

Taehyung intended to ignore them until they left because he was sleeping so peacefully, but he is fully awoken when the jangling of his body turns into tickles on his body. He rolls onto his side and curls into himself to try to get away as he yells, “Okay, okay, I’m awake!”

“You have five minutes before we all come back in here,” Jimin says. Then to Jungkook, “I’m trusting you.” Taehyung sees Jungkook nod with a salute before Jimin leaves.

Jungkook, however, is his sweet little baby fledgling, so when it is just them, he slides right into their bed and cozies up in his sire’s arms. “Hi,” he says.

Taehyung pulls him closer. He nuzzles him and is nuzzled back. He takes a deep inhale of Jungkook’s scent, his comforting blood, the smell enough to make his mouth water if he weren’t so sleepy and relaxed. “Hello, my darling boy,” he says, a kiss on his eyebrow. “I promise I will get up soon. Just need another minute of this.”

Jungkook tilts his head up to look at him. “Merry Christmas,” he says quietly.

Taehyung smiles at him softly. Kisses him even softer. “Merry Christmas, my love,” he whispers. “Our second one together.” How strange it all is.

“And lots more to come,” Jungkook says.

“Mhm,” Taehyung nods. “Now we should join the others out there before they come to attack us.” Jungkook mumbles his disagreement. “But don’t you want to open presents, darling? You have so many between all of us.” That sends Jungkook right out of bed and pulling Taehyung out with him before his feet have barely touched the ground.

They walk down the hall toward the living room. The day after they put up the Christmas tree was spent decorating nearly every inch of the expansive manor. It has come to look as if they live somewhere people visit as an attraction over the holidays rather than somewhere people live. Lights hang from the ceiling, lit up to look like dripping icicles. Garland is scalloped along the walls, and the tables they pass are full of winter villages or snowmen or Santas while large nutcrackers flank the front door like suits of armor. Every time he walks down the hall he notices even more decorations that he did not spot before just because of how much of everything there is. Even though it is a bit tacky or overdone in certain spots, Taehyung likes the holiday cheer of it all. The manor is more lively than it has ever been, and that is even more noticeable when they step into the living room that is roaring with life. All of their friends and the two of them are matching in another pajama set, sitting on the floor or the couch, picking through gifts or hands being slapped away from them.

“Just in time,” Yoongi says when they enter the room. He holds out two mugs for each of them, and Taehyung can see the warm steam swirling over the top of them.

“Thanks, hyung,” Jungkook says. Yoongi laughs and shakes his head, because Jungkook calls him and only him hyung sometimes, and none of them know why. Taehyung suspects it is because he sees Yoongi as truly a brother, and it is entirely because of the way Yoongi treats him as if he is one. They all know the way Yoongi is fond of him, the way he cares for him and lets him get away with anything. It is lovely to see Jungkook be so loved in so many kinds of ways.

Taehyung takes his mug from Yoongi as well with his own show of gratitude. Yoongi’s shyness at being thanked reminds Taehyung of how strangely embarrassing it was when Yoongi came to them last night.

He softly knocked on their bedroom door. “For Christmas morning,” he said, “I was going to make warm drinks for everyone to sip on while we open gifts. You two only feed from each other though, so do you want to… I don’t know, like, draw blood from each other or something? Drip blood into a cup? However you want to do it, do you want to take blood from each other that I can use tomorrow?”

What ensued was a quite gruesome affair of cutting each other open and bleeding into a cup as much as they could before their skin healed. It was a long and gory process, but eventually they were able to pass some of their blood along to Yoongi. Which has now been given back to them, warmed and smelling of wintry spices.

“Presents tiiiiiiiiime!” Hoseok sings when he sees them enter.

Jungkook plops down onto the couch, and Taehyung giggles as he’s pulled onto his lap. He crosses his legs politely and wraps an arm around Jungkook’s neck as he sips on his (or, Jungkook’s, technically) blood. He was nervous it would taste bad because it would be taking away from the flavor of his fledgling, and while he does prefer Jungkook’s blood as it purely is, it is still a nice, festive treat. Jungkook kisses his shoulder, and Taehyung turns his head to kiss his lips right as two presents are dropped on his lap – one for Jungkook and one for himself, Jungkook’s from Yoongi and Taehyung’s from Jimin.

Taehyung can tell Jungkook is buzzing, but he is looking up at Taehyung with those round eyes. Taehyung laughs. “You can open yours first, my love,” he says. Jungkook hands Taehyung his mug, and he wastes no time in tearing open the red and white snowflake-printed wrapping paper, sprinkling glitter down onto Taehyung from the sparkle of the snowflakes on the paper.

Jungkook’s eyebrows are furrowed as he looks down at his gift. Taehyung stares too, and it takes a second before, “Oh my goodness, is that…” It clicks for Jungkook then too, whose eyes light up as he laughs.

“What is it?” Jimin asks, trying to peek over the coffee table from his spot on the floor.

Jungkook holds up the tiny little sweater. It is a Christmas sweater, black with blue snowflakes on it, and handknit. But it is not a normal-sized or -shaped sweater, because it was made to fit his little bat. There are holes for his wings and his head to fit through, as well as his legs in the back.

“Yoongi, that’s so cute!” Jimin yells as the rest of them giggle at how adorable and thoughtful it is, while Yoongi blushes and mutters his thanks at the compliments he receives for his knitting talents.

And for the rest of the morning, everyone opens gifts from each other that are equally as thoughtful (one of which includes a friendship bracelet from Jimin, who laughs with glee when Taehyung then gives Jimin the friendship bracelet he got for them). As they talk and spend time together with the mess of wrapping paper and bows and ribbons strewn about on the floor, Jungkook gently tugs on Taehyung’s sleeve to get his attention.

“I have something else for you,” he says quietly. “I didn’t want to give it to you in front of the others though.”

“Me too,” Taehyung says, so they sneakily slip away just for a little while. “Meet you in our bedroom?” Jungkook nods, so they go off their separate ways – Jungkook to wherever he hid his gift, and Taehyung upstairs into the dusty second floor of the manor.

With Jungkook’s gifts in hand, he goes down to their bedroom, where Jungkook is sitting on their bed, nervously fiddling with a box. Taehyung sets his gift down and sits beside him. “Yours first,” he says so Jungkook can let go of whatever anxieties he is having for some reason.

Jungkook nods and hands him the box without looking at him. It is a small velvet box with a bow wrapped around it. He carefully unties it and flips open the lid. He inhales a small breath.

“S-So,” Jungkook starts, “the rubies. They’re red, obviously, hah, but they were, um, made with our blood. I was going to maybe do one with my blood and one with yours, but it felt more like us if the blood was mixed together. So the stones have our blood in them.”

There are two rings in the box. One is silver and one is gold, with a dainty ruby in each one. They aren’t in traditional gem shapes though, and instead look like– “One is a waxing crescent moon,” Jungkook says, “and the other is a half moon. A first quarter moon, specifically. They’re the moon phases that were in the sky when we met each time. S-So, the silver ring is for me, and it’s the crescent moon that was in the sky when I first found you. And the gold one is yours, and a half moon was in the sky when you found me again.” With shaking hands, Taehyung carefully takes the silver ring out of the box. Jungkook’s hands are trembling even more when he takes the gold one. “A-And, we don’t have to if you don’t want, but I thought that we could, um, you know, wear them on our ring fingers… Not as engagement rings or anything, but just, you know, we’re each other’s… So…”

Taehyung takes Jungkook’s hand. He carefully slides the ring right onto his ring finger. He brings his hand to his lips, and he kisses him there. Jungkook is much more confident than before when he takes Taehyung’s hand and does the same. Taehyung holds his hand out and sees the delicate ring there, one of so many ways he carries his and Jungkook’s love with him.

“So…” Jungkook says nervously.

Taehyung finally meets his eye, and tears stream down his cheeks. “This is so wonderful, Jungkook-ah,” he says. Jungkook sighs in relief as if there could be an ounce of doubt over how incredible this is. “This was so thoughtful, darling. This is so wonderful. God, this is so lovely, sweetheart. I love it. I love this so much. Thank you, my love.”

He holds his hand out again to look at his ring, and then Jungkook holds his hand out too so they can see them together. It’s so lovely.

Jungkook then looks at him in anticipation, and Taehyung understands his previous anxiousness. He hands Jungkook a square brown envelope, with a wax seal stamped with a lavender motif keeping it closed.

Jungkook looks confused as he takes it. He carefully opens it and pulls out the papers inside. Taehyung watches his expression as he reads, his lips parting when he realizes what it is.

Taehyung had spent months researching in every available second he had when he was not with Jungkook. He had travelled to the city to talk to others, he had unearthed old books in forgotten basements, he had done everything he can to gather every single possible hint of knowledge on the topic.

So in Jungkook’s hands is a list, more like a guide, of every single possible thing they can do to make sure their bond never goes away. Taehyung has always been entirely certain it would not; he intrinsically knows it. He knows that Jungkook does too, but he voices his doubts and his fears far more often than Taehyung would like. So he has gathered every possible thing they could do to make sure it stays – no matter how silly and small or grand and complicated they were. Rituals for them to carry out during the full moon, and different ones to enact on the moons they found each other beneath (fitting so well with Jungkook’s gift too). Processes adhering to the red string of fate – tying a red string around their pinky fingers and doing different rites within its tradition, including tattooing a red line around their pinky fingers. Special, terribly difficult-to-find herbs (already retrieved by Taehyung) to steep into their blood before they drink it. A list of every single possible ritual that can be done on the topic, or anything even vaguely relating to it. Pages of them. So by the time they are done, there will be no room for doubt (even though there really is not any to begin with).

With everything he found, though, within every ritual and rite, time and time again, he was told that the very best way to ensure that it never leaves is simply to love each other. And if everything else is fictitious and just an empty tale, they have enough love to weave them together in the strongest of ways.

– ☾ –

They spend time with their family until the night falls, and then comes a knock at the door. Suddenly the manor is full of more life and laughter and people than it has ever contained before. Their seven-person family is joined by another family of eight when Felix and Chan bring their family over, and they all meet one another for the first time. When everyone clicks together as if they’d known each other for centuries, Taehyung knows that this is the start of a new eternity-long tradition.

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Jungkook asks as he wraps Taehyung’s scarf around his neck for him. There is a pout on his lips, so Taehyung leans in and kisses it.

“I am sure, baby bat,” Taehyung says. “You are having fun with our friends, and it is an unexciting trip to the post office. We can go on our walk together tomorrow night just as usual.”

“Okay…” Jungkook mutters unhappily.

“You know it is not because I don’t want you with me, right?” Taehyung asks.

Jungkook’s pout softens. “I know. Just feels weird without you.”

“If you ever miss me, you can focus on the bond, and I will be right there. Oh! I will also have my cellular phone now! So you may call me or text me if you wish.” The convenience of that will continue to astound him. He kisses Jungkook once more. “I love you, darling.”

“I love you, sire.”

With the warmth of Jungkook in his chest and the lingering feeling of his lips on his own, he steps out into the night.

– ☾ –

It is strange being on walks alone. What is truly more strange, really, is that he now has a companion on his walks. But he has so easily fallen into familiarity with it all that Jungkook’s absence is far more strange than his presence.

Even though he would always, always, always prefer if Jungkook were right by his side, preferably with their hands joined together or himself tucked under his fledgling’s arm, the solitude is nice. This is his first walk alone after finding Jungkook. The world is the same, but he feels so different that it seems as though the entire world is different too. Have the city lights always been so warm? Has the snow lining the tree branches and woven through the park’s cobblestones always been so picturesque? Has his solitude always felt like this? Like he is simply spending time with himself, and not completely alone in the world?

Life is different, and he is different, and he feels so lucky that love has allowed him to change.

He walks past the bench he used to watch Jungkook sleep on, and a soft curve is on his lips. It is dusted with snow, and Taehyung leaves it untouched. The little pedestal where the universe placed what he was meant to find.

He weaves through the park, leaving footprints in the untouched snow. He walks over the bridge where he and his fledgling first kissed. He wonders if, for the rest of forever, the world will be, to him, different places Jungkook has touched. No longer the bench, or the bridge, or the street corner by the stoplight, but rather where he found him, where they shared their first kiss, where Taehyung found the confidence to initiate a kiss for the first time too.

He walks along the perimeter of the city, toward their post office only a ten minute stroll from the park. He takes his time with it though. It was a busy Christmas season, so it was sometimes a little overwhelming to live in a house of seven – on top of eight more guests being there. The quiet stillness is nice. He had forgotten how introverted he is by nature when he has come to rely so heavily on Jungkook.

He retrieves the week’s mail from their postage box – a few letters for Namjoon, and a small package for Hoseok. He slips everything into the pocket of his coat, then he heads back into the winter night to return to the manor. As he walks, he reaches for the bond, and he feels it curled up there in his chest, warm and content.

Having Jungkook again is a miracle in itself. More than a miracle, he does not even have a word for Jungkook returning to him. But getting the bond along with it? It would be everything to just have gotten Jungkook again, but getting to feel him always? Carry him with him no matter where he is? Feel his happiness, his warmth, his presence even from miles away feels like the luckiest thing to have been given in addition to his sweet boy returning to him.

He makes his way back to the park, then through it and through the forest. He rushes through this area until the manor comes into view. It usually glows like a warm beacon into the night, but it is dark right now. Taehyung understands, since they have all had such a busy holiday; everyone must be craving alone time.

He walks through the garden to his veranda, then he opens the French doors into their bedroom. He closes the door behind him and takes off his shoes so he does not track in any snow, but he freezes before he can take off his coat.

There, standing in the middle of the room, is Jungkook. The room is dark except for the quiet flicker of the candle he is holding. And since he is not human, Taehyung can see through the darkness. There are streamers made of paper stars bowing from the ceiling and reaching to the walls. Flowers cover every surface in their room – the coffee table, the bedside tables, the dresser, the fireplace mantle, more kinds of flowers than Taehyung has ever seen at once. Tea lights are snuggled in throughout, making it look like a flower garden beneath the twinkling stars.

It is all the same. It is all as he remembers it.

Which must mean… “Happy birthday, Tae,” Jungkook says quietly, the softest of smiles on his lips as he watches tears gather in Taehyung’s eyes.

Taehyung steps closer, knees shaking. “T-Today’s my birthday?” he breathes out.

Jungkook nods. “You don’t eat cake, so I couldn’t bake you anything,” he says again, just like a hundred years ago, “but you have me.” He holds the candle out. “Make a wish.”

Taehyung tries to blink through his blurry vision, but each second brings more tears.

It’s his birthday.

The very last day of the year. That is his birthday. He had not known for one hundred and twenty-four years.

He remembers the last time he made a birthday wish.

Somehow, in some way, I want to spend forever with Jungkook.

And it came true.

This time, he says in his head, I wish that Jungkook will never be taken from me again, nor will I be taken from him. I wish that my family and I will never be separated.

He closes his eyes and blows out the candle. And when he does, the room brightens and erupts into cheers as his friends jump out from their hiding places that he had not even noticed, despite his heightened senses.

He laughs as he is pulled into one of his friend's arms – he cannot even tell whose because he is soon in someone else’s as he is passed around to be showered in love and birthday wishes, from both his family and his friends who have travelled here to celebrate the holidays.

As he hugs Jimin back while his best friend says, “I can’t believe I finally get to celebrate your birthday with you for the first time!” he meets Jungkook’s eyes over Jimin’s shoulder. They share a private smile, and Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut so he doesn’t cry. He nuzzles into Jimin’s neck and holds him back.

– ☾ –

The celebration moves to the living room, which is absolutely decked out in birthday decorations. There is a balloon arch that welcomes them into the room, streamers everywhere, balloons floating in the air or resting on the floor. Taehyung can’t believe today is his birthday. After over a hundred years of having no idea, he knows now. And he knows he is going to be celebrated every year now too. So, so many birthdays have passed without him realizing, as if it was any day like those before it.

His friends seem to be making up for decades of not knowing – through decorations and gifts and love. He doesn’t get a moment of downtime before he is pulled into another conversation or, most often, into Jimin’s arms.

He does not remember much about the times he celebrated his birthday as a human, but he knows they were nowhere near as lovely. He did not have these six people he loves above all others; everything before he knew them felt dull and dreary.

The night gets even better when his and Jungkook’s eyes meet across the room. Jungkook nods his head toward the doorway, and Taehyung nods.

Jungkook escapes first, and once their friends are distracted a couple minutes later, Taehyung manages to sneak away too.

And when he arrives at their bedroom, the breath is knocked out of him.

The room is lit in the warm glow of even more candles that flicker all around them, along with the crackling and warmth of the fire calmly swaying in the hearth. Trailing from the door to the bed is a path of red rose petals. They lead to Jungkook at the end of it.

Jungkook holds his hand out, and Taehyung gravitates toward him.

“Happy birthday, sire,” Jungkook whispers to him when he is in his arms. He kisses him before he can reply, so softly that it threatens to make him collapse.

He allows Jungkook to push him down so he is lying on the bed. He crawls over him, and he leans down to kiss him again, the kiss less soft this time but somehow feeling so. No matter how Jungkook treats him – whether they are sharing kisses or wrestling outside at night – it is somehow still soft. Taehyung would once say that it is because Jungkook cannot help but be soft when he is the gentlest person there is, but now part of him thinks that maybe... maybe it is not fully because of Jungkook, but because of him too. Because he deserves to be treated with such gentleness. 

Jungkook takes his time with kissing him, and he does so so thoroughly. He caresses Taehyung’s tongue with his own, kissing him so deeply that it is causing Taehyung to heat up. He moans from the kiss, from how deep Jungkook kisses him, like it is not enough. Jungkook returns the sound as their tongues tangle, the both of them kissing deeper and harden, moaning and sighing and whimpering. 

Taehyung can feel Jungkook's hardness against his own, the heat of his bulge pressing against him. When Taehyung’s hand travels down from his side to move between his legs, he’s stopped. Jungkook takes him by the wrist and returns his hand to where it was, touching his side beneath his shirt. “It’s your birthday, sire,” he says against his lips. “Let me take care of you.”

“But–”

“And no ‘touching you makes me feel good’ or whatever you were going to say.” Taehyung huffs a laugh, because that is exactly what he was going to say. “It’s all about you, just you feeling good because of the way I touch you.”

Taehyung recalls the last birthday of his that he celebrated. When Jungkook said words so similar to those, and the way he felt when he obeyed him. The way Jungkook made him feel that entire night. It appears in his head, and he lets go, because Jungkook knows how to take care of him. And he is so good at it that maybe he will indulge them both this time, just take and take and have that be good enough.

“Good,” Jungkook says softly, watching him surrender. He leans down to kiss him once more. “I’ll take care of you.”

“I know,” Taehyung says quietly.

He allows Jungkook to take his shirt off. He does not try to hide or cover the scars that have never faded from his arms and his neck, because he knows Jungkook would not let him. He wants to, he wants to turn Jungkook's head away, he wants to look away from himself too, from the thick gashes permanently marred there. He cannot think about it further, because goosebumps break out when Jungkook drags his fingers so lightly across his skin as he removes the rest of his clothes too. 

It leaves him bare in front of Jungkook, who remains fully clothed. And he–he likes this dynamic right now, but he just–he wants to be closer to Jungkook, he wants to be bare and naked and vulnerable together. So he asks, “Can you take yours off too?” And Jungkook obeys, because they obey each other. No one is ever fully in control; they are powerless to one another.

They stare at each other in the candlelight. The shadows flicker across their bodies. Jungkook traces each shadow against Taehyung’s lower stomach, every curve and point of the flames against the softness beneath them. It makes his cock twitch where it rests just below where his finger draws. Jungkook ignores the movement. He trails his finger down, along the curve of where his leg meets his torso, making Taehyung’s whole body twitch while his cock begins to leak. And Jungkook still ignores it. He just lightly touches Taehyung, not even seeming to do it to tease him or rile him up, but just to touch and admire him instead.

Jungkook’s hands smooth up and down his thighs, the firmest touch he’s gotten so far. After so much feather-lightness it makes Taehyung moan, broken and quiet like the crackling of the fire.

“Can you get on your hands and knees for me?” Jungkook asks. He doesn’t give him time to do it himself, because Taehyung finds himself flipped over before he knows it. It is followed by a low giggle and, “I wasn’t this strong before.” Long ago when they were like this, Jungkook only had the strength of a human. Now he can do with Taehyung whatever he wishes with not very much to stop him. It has always been like that though, because Taehyung has always listened to every word he said.

A hand settling on Taehyung’s lower back makes him dip it before he can be told, and he hears a sigh of admiration from behind him when he does so. He sinks down to his elbows before they have even started, because he knows his strength will soon leave him and he will end up there anyway.

He whimpers and squeezes his eyes shut in embarrassment when Jungkook spreads his cheeks. He has always found this position embarrassing, to be so vulnerable, to have such an intimate spot looked at, let alone what else is to come. Jungkook has always liked him in this position for that reason, to see him be so open, no walls up – and because of the way he arches his back for him. 

His body relaxes, though, when Jungkook’s tongue presses against his rim. He breathes out a sigh of relief, as if he has wanted him there for so long without realizing and now it is finally happening. “Jungkookie,” he sighs again, a faint smile coming to his lips as his grip on the duvet slowly tightens. He allows himself to get lost in it.

Jungkook eats him out as thoroughly as he kisses him. He always has. He eats him out as if he is getting more pleasure out of this than Taehyung is, and Taehyung does not see how that could ever be possible. Jungkook is not meek or shy with it; he licks him everywhere, inside and out. He drags his tongue up and down, from his balls up to the start of his back, over and over again. He pushes his tongue inside, just a little bit at a time before he goes back to licking on him. He pauses to suck on his balls, making Taehyung let out moans of unplaceable sounds and words. Jungkook rolls his balls around in his mouth, licking around them, sucking on them, pulling them away from his body while still in his mouth so Taehyung will feel the tug.

He finally pushes his tongue all the way inside of his hole, and Taehyung thinks he’s getting light headed from his moans and the way he is squeezing his eyes shut so tightly in pleasure. It's wet and it's intimate and it's loving to be licked inside this spot, it is so-it's so much. 

He opens his eyes and sees the candlelight dancing around the room. He arches his back more, wanting Jungkook to like it, wanting Jungkook to like it and think he’s pretty and good. And he seems to because he leans back to swear and admire, his hand running over one of his cheeks. “So beautiful, sire,” Jungkook says.

Without even realizing he’d procured lube, Taehyung feels a slick finger prod at his hole before it slips inside. It is only the tip though before Jungkook pulls it back, and pulls a whine out of Taehyung with it. He is already ready to beg and they have barely just started. “Be patient, sire,” Jungkook says with a giggle.

Taehyung does not want to be patient right now though; he wants Jungkook to finger him, so he pushes his ass back, trying to make him slip it inside of him again. And because his boy is sweet, Jungkook does so even though he is misbehaving. He buries his finger the entire way, and Taehyung sighs in relief again. It quickly turns into a moan when Jungkook adds a second finger and begins sliding them in and out, dragging them along his walls, making him feel the intrusion even more.

“You sound so pretty,” Jungkook says. Taehyung somehow finds it in him to giggle when Jungkook kisses his asscheek, then another when he bites him there after.

He adds a third finger, and Taehyung loudly moans, pushing back against it to try to get him deeper. He surrenders again and cannot move or think or breathe when Jungkook begins to massage his prostate after ignoring it this entire time. He feels it behind his knees, in his lower back, snuggled beneath his collarbones, the strange touch inside of him. It makes his toes curl and his hands fist the blanket. He is so lost in the bliss of it that it takes him a moment to realize Jungkook is talking to him. And when he listens, it makes tears come to his eyes.

“I love you, Tae,” Jungkook says gently. “I would always find my way back to you. You should have expected I’d be back when I left a long time ago, because I loved you too much for that to have been the end. I’ll be here always. I love you, Tae. You’re so good, sire. So good and kind and loving. You take care of me so well, and–” Taehyung cries out when he comes untouched. His body trembles with each spurt of cum that he spills onto the blanket, jerking forward with each line of cum that shoots from his cock. He hadn’t really been conscious of being close, and Jungkook wasn’t either by the cute noise of surprise he makes. He’s quick to massage his prostate again, trying to prolong it. And it works, because it feels like it is never-ending.

Before he has even fully calmed down, Taehyung finds himself on his back again. “Every time I talk about how good you are at taking care of me, you come,” Jungkook says with a laugh. “I don’t even say it for that reason because I forget until it happens. But you must really like hearing that.”

Taehyung rests his hand on Jungkook’s cheek. “Of course I do,” he says. “You’re the most important thing there is to me. I like to know that I am for good for you.”

Jungkook nuzzles against his palm. “You are,” he says. He kisses his wrist. Taehyung loves when he kisses that spot, the skin so sensitive and the kiss so sweet.

He feels the wet head of Jungkook’s cock press against his entrance. “So good,” Jungkook says. He presses down more. “A good sire, a good boyfriend.” Taehyung’s hole dips, more and more pressure, pushing in until it finally spreads apart to wrap around Jungkook’s cock. “Good for me. So good for me, baby. The most perfect person for me.” Inch by inch, more and more. “There could never be anybody better for me than you, Tae. You’re perfect. Perfect for me.” Taehyung feels small dribbles of cum trickling from his cock by the time Jungkook is fully inside. He is certain his eyes flash red when Jungkook trails his finger through what is there and brings it to his mouth, sucking the cum off of his finger.

Jungkook’s hands rest on his cheeks, then he leans in and nuzzles the tips of their noses together so adorably that Taehyung’s eyes begin to water. His love, his boy, his sweet little fledgling. The sweetest person he could ever find. “I love you, baby,” Jungkook whispers between one kiss and the next. “I love you so much. I’m going to celebrate you every single year, forever. I’ll celebrate you on all of the other days you weren’t gifted to the universe too. Every single day I have with you is worth celebrating. You are. You’re everything, Tae. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened.” Tears stream down Taehyung’s cheeks with each word. Even more when Jungkook finally begins to move, fucking him so slowly and so deeply Taehyung can barely even think. He takes his time with the movement of his hips as if they have all the time in the world. And they really, truly do. Every slow thrust inside presses right against his prostate, making him wrap his legs around Jungkook because he needs him closer.

“I love you,” Taehyung manages to choke out. Jungkook kisses his tears away. When he kisses his lips, Taehyung can taste them. He pulls Jungkook down so he’s hugging him, arms wrapped around his neck and legs around his waist, clinging to him. Even like this, Jungkook moves inside of him, never stopping making him feel good, with his movements or his words.

“You’re so warm,” Jungkook says into his neck. Taehyung had gotten so used to this warmth that he’d forgotten he became so cold when he lost Jungkook. Reuniting with it felt so familiar that he forgot the way everyone flinched when they touched him. But now every place their skin meets is warm, and Taehyung is warm even when they do not touch.

Jungkook kisses his neck, then he begins to suck on him there. He leaves marks behind, littering his skin with them, claiming him in all the ways he can. Even more when his fangs slide into his neck and he begins to feed from him. Taehyung sobs from the feeling, the feeling of knowing he is feeding his fledgling. That he is here for his fledgling, feeding him and holding him and laying here for him to make love to. He is being so good, laying here just for him, being what he wants, doing what he was told. 

Jungkook takes big, greedy drinks from him, because he knows he is allowed to. Taehyung always goes lax when Jungkook feeds from him, and the way he is relaxed has allowed Jungkook to fuck him in earnest now. He speeds up his thrusts, but not enough to jostle him, because it is like he is putting his comfort first.

Jungkook licks his bite mark closed, then he leans back. He is so gorgeous, Taehyung thinks. Wavy hair falling delicately, fangs looking deadly, irises a shade of red. He lifts his arm, and Taehyung takes it before he can even fully offer. He sinks his teeth into his wrist with a moan that stays stuck in his throat. His eyes close in bliss as he feeds from his fledgling, while his fledgling fucks him harder. Jungkook’s blood slides down his throat, and it is as if he can feel the way it feeds him, the way it keeps him alive, the way Jungkook is what allows him to live. 

“My baby,” Jungkook says. “My sire.” Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut to push the tears swimming there down his cheeks as he continues to drink from him. “Do you know how much I love you?” Taehyung opens his eyes and nods with his fangs still in Jungkook’s wrist, cut right through the vein.

Jungkook’s abs are flexed as he fucks him, his eyes red as he watches him. He looks dangerous, and Taehyung has never felt safer. And he looks adorable and sweet, just like a little fledgling. He moves down and kisses his face. “I love you,” he says against his lips, as if he could have forgotten. “Going to love you forever. Me and you, forever.” Taehyung comes with a gut-wrenching cry. His mouth drops open, and Jungkook’s wrist bleeds onto his chest, and his throat and chest ache with the strength of his moan. His back arches off the bed before Jungkook pushes it down, making him take it. Taehyung can feel his cock even more with the pressure from the outside. He can feel just how long and thick it is as it fills him, and Taehyung takes it so easily, like he was made for it. 

Tears run down his temples when he feels Jungkook fill him with his cum too. He is covered in Jungkook, his blood on his chest, cum in his hole, tears that are falling onto his face when he kisses him. There is not another love like this, Taehyung thinks. There is not another person who could love so deeply as he loves Jungkook, as Jungkook loves him.

Taehyung does not even notice when Jungkook finally stills, because he had already left his body long ago. And when Jungkook collapses on top of him, it is like the best kind of weighted blanket. He is safe and loved, and he will live another year.

– ☾ –

“The new year is coming up,” Taehyung says as they lie on their sides in bed once they’ve come back to themselves and cleaned up the mess they made of each other. They are facing each other, watching the candlelight make the other glow. There are bite marks and bruises across their naked skin, and Taehyung cannot even remember himself marking Jungkook, because he had been so lost in feeling so high after so many rounds.

Jungkook nods. “Our first full year together again,” he says, matching the quietness of his voice.

Taehyung can see the snow falling quietly in the moonlight out the window, matching the quiet, calm moment. The fireplace continues to crackle in the background. If Taehyung were ever one to daydream in the moments when he did not have Jungkook, he thinks this moment right here is exactly what his daydreams would be made of.

“The first of many,” Jungkook adds. “The first of every single one.”

Every year of their lives, together. Him and Jungkook. There is no him anymore, no Taehyung. He is nothing without Jungkook. He knows that is not exactly healthy, but he does not know if there is a way to be truly healthy when he is himself and he and Jungkook are he and Jungkook.

Taehyung tucks a lock of hair behind Jungkook’s ear. Studies his face. His sweet doe eyes, sparkling with the candle flames. His round nose, his pouty lips, the beauty mark beneath them because he kissed him so much that proof of his love appeared. “You are not going to get sick of me?” Taehyung asks. “Forever is a very long time, you know.”

Jungkook takes his hand and he holds their hands to his chest. “I know,” he says. “I want you in infinite forevers. Me and you. I will never get sick of you. I will never want to be without you. There’s always you and me. I’m never leaving your side.” Taehyung wonders if the purring he feels is from the bond or from his fledgling.

“Promise?” Taehyung asks. He wants it to be true so badly. He believes it is true. He wants him to tell him so. Jungkook holds his pinky out. Taehyung blinks at it. “Why are you doing that?”

Jungkook giggles. “It’s a pinky promise. You wrap your pinky around mine and it makes it a stronger promise.”

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. “Is it more binding in some way?”

Jungkook’s smile is so wide and so lovely, looking like a cute little bunny. “It just means it’s a really strong promise. You’re not supposed to break pinky promises. It’s bad.”

“Well alright then,” Taehyung says. He holds his pinky out, and Jungkook wraps it around his the way he is supposed to for him. He kisses him right after. “Have we now promised? Is there something else we are to do?”

Jungkook giggles again and shakes his head. “No, that’s it.”

“Will either party be cursed if they broke the pinky promise?”

“Are you planning to?” Jungkook asks with an eyebrow raised.

“No!” Taehyung insists. “I have just never heard of such a promise, so I am trying to understand it.”

“I dunno,” Jungkook shrugs. “Maybe it’s bad luck or something. You’re just less trustworthy and bad if you break a pinky promise.”

“I see…” Taehyung says pensively. “Well, I will not break it. Or any future ones that come about.”

“Neither will I,” Jungkook says.

“Good,” Taehyung says. “I do not want you to leave my side.” His voice becomes more serious and desperate than he was expecting. “I need you, Jungkook-ah. I need you with me.”

“I always will be, Tae,” Jungkook says softly. “I need you too. I need you. I won’t leave.” He studies Taehyung, trying to figure out if he believes him. Taehyung does. It’s just–sometimes the thought of it arrives so powerfully that he cannot help but let it sway the way he is feeling. But his Jungkook is so sweet that he does not even seem to mind reassuring him again no matter how many times he's already done it before.

“I love you, little fledgling,” Taehyung says. “My darling boy. My love. I love you.”

Jungkook wiggles closer. He nudges their noses together. “I love you too, sire,” he says softly, then he kisses him even softer.

Chapter Text

Taehyung never truly learned the language of the seasons. He knew what they sounded like; he could place each one, but he never became fluent. He knows that the leaves turn in autumn, and they fall before snow does in the winter. In spring things bloom and in summer it is hot.

But he doesn’t think he ever really noticed spring. He did not know that Swallows and Japanese Accentors return back to their forest in March after spending the winter away, and that he is always able to hear them when the sun is out, singing to him from their perches. He did not know that they even had dogwood trees surrounding the manor to begin with, let alone that they blossom in the spring with beautiful white flowers, making the trees look as if they’ve borrowed the clouds in the sky. He is not even sure that he even realized how rainy it gets, the thunderstorms that nourish all of the blooming life on the ground.

But now he has Jungkook. His Jungkook who says, “That bird song is pretty. Do you hear it? I guess they’re back for spring now. I didn’t even realize I missed hearing them.” His Jungkook who “wooooooooow”s seeing the dogwood tree’s blossoms, who plucks one from its branches and tucks it behind Taehyung’s ear before doing the same for himself. His Jungkook who whines while gazing out the window on stormy nights because he wants to go run around outside now that the forest around them does not look so scary.

Now, Taehyung is slowly becoming fluent in the language of the seasons – at least with spring for now.

His thoughts about it all are interrupted when he hears Jungkook ask, “Are you sad about them leaving?” His voice is surprised and soft and quiet.

Taehyung chuckles. “No,” he says. “They are only a walk away. I am sniffling because I keep sneezing from dusting!” And he proves exactly that when he doubles over with the force of his sneeze. It sends up a puff of dust from the shelf he was dusting, which causes him to sneeze again. And when the dust settles, he just has to start all over.

It is almost worth it though because of the way Jungkook giggles. “I didn’t know vampires could sneeze,” he says. “You’re always so serious, but you’re sneezing and I haven’t seen you sneeze before. It’s cute.”

Taehyung snorts, then sniffles again before he resumes his dusting. “Why would we not sneeze?” he laughs. “Things can still tickle our noses. You have sneezed yourself before.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true…” Jungkook says pensively. “You’re cute when you sneeze.”

Taehyung snorts again. “I am not cute ever. I am too old to be cute.”

Jungkook scoffs very passionately. “Not only is that incorrect – that your age can stop you from being cute – but it’s wrong too.”

“I think those are synonyms, little bat.”

“You’re incorrect and you’re wrong. And you’re also… you’re–you’re–mistaken too!” Taehyung laughs. He turns to Jungkook and leans against the wall, his feather duster in hand. “Not too old to be cute, wrong about not being cute, and wrong about being old! Well, like, in vampire years you’re definitely old, but in human age you’re not!”

“Sweetheart, I have grey in my hair and wrinkles in my skin. I both am and look old.”

“No!” Jungkook says. He seems very passionate about this. “And those things are so sexy, Tae. Like seriously, you have no idea. I can’t even look at you sometimes because of how hot you are because of those things. Okay, anyway–” He clears his throat. “You are cute. And that’s that. You’re cute when you sneeze and you’re cute when you’re just standing there. And it’s so different from how serious you usually are around others. You’re cute around me.”

Taehyung chuckles. “Well, if you think so, then alright, little fledgling.” He turns back to his shelf and continues dusting. “I am just about done with this room, then that will complete our spring cleaning.”

“Can we decorate now then?”

“We can, yes. If you want to start bringing everyth–” Jungkook is gone before he even finishes his sentence.

His little fledgling has been very excited about all of these things to come. They are both a bit sad that their friends have now moved out and into their own places, and it is strange to hear silence in the manor. But more than that, it’s quite lovely. This is his and Jungkook’s home. It is all theirs, and only theirs. This is their home together.

Jungkook has been itching to start redecorating and finally creating a use for some of the manor’s rooms, but Taehyung insisted that they thoroughly clean the place so that they are decorating someplace clean and dust-free. Jungkook relented, because he listens to his sire (most of the time).

With cleaning completed, they get to start in on the fun part. They spend the rest of the entire morning and daylight hours making the manor more theirs than it was before. Old paintings are hung and furniture is moved and rugs are laid on previously-bare floors. Knickknacks and candles are set around, curtains are thrown open, blankets are brought into rooms to make them feel cozier. By the time night finally falls, the manor feels like home. It did before, but now it really is. It’s their home.

And it no longer feels left unfinished, because the upstairs is part of their home now too. It is no longer an entire vast part of the house that everyone refused to talk about as they pretended it was not there. Now there is not even a door that restricts anyone’s access. It has been removed, with the door frame rounded out to an arch so it looks like an entrance, rather than what used to be a barrier to keep everyone away. The wooden steps have been cleared of dust and now shine with polish, as do all of the wooden floors upstairs, the creakiness of them feeling more like sighs of relief than warnings like Taehyung had thought before.

He and Jungkook walk down the hall together, where boarded up windows have been set free to let the light shine through. The rooms have been cleared of storage, because they put the actual items in them to use – curating them rather than throwing a sheet over all of them. In the space between gothic windows in the hallway hang wall sconces with flickering candle flames in them. Along with them hang their art. Paintings and drawings of his and Jungkook’s life, from the both of them. Jungkook lying in their bed asleep, a time when Taehyung could paint him freely without Jungkook demanding he come over to kiss him every other minute. Taehyung at the kitchen counter, cutting vegetables for Jungkook’s dinner. A view of the lake they spent so many nights swimming in. Moments from trips they took together, sketches Jungkook made, love letters they had written with drawings attached, so many memories of theirs hanging as art in their home.

It leads to Taehyung’s painting studio.

He was nervous to set it up, even though they already worked through the fear of him painting. Still, it was another big step, even if he had been painting all the time again already.

The space is open and airy, so opposite from how it was before, like a closed off memory. An easel – the one Jungkook handmade for him so long ago – is stationed in front of the big windows. All of his art supplies are around the room – a cart beside the easel for his paintbrushes and palette, a peg board on the wall for different tools, shelves of different mediums of paint, canvases of different sizes leaned against the wall on the floor. More of Taehyung’s old paintings hang from the walls, because they have enough to fill entire museums (and even more in actual museums). There is a green circular rug on the dark wood floor, and different chairs around the room so that there are options for Jungkook to sit in when Taehyung paints him, his eternal muse.

Across the hall from Taehyung’s painting room is what will one day be Jungkook’s tattooing studio, whenever he feels ready to pursue it. As they set it up – the room much darker and edgier than the surprising sunniness of Taehyung’s studio – when Taehyung asked when he will take his first client, Jungkook shrugged. “I’m in no hurry,” he said, adjusting the framed art of his own on the wall so it is not crooked. “Maybe sometime next fall or winter.” He reached out and took Taehyung’s hand. Pulled him into his arms and kissed him. “I don’t want to commit any of my time to anyone or anything that isn’t you right now.” And Taehyung is not going to argue with that.

They made one of the rooms into a small study, with a simple bookcase and a cozy reading nook. There is another art studio to house their curiosity in different mediums, like pottery and sculpture. Every room that was formerly hidden from sight and mind will now be lived in. It now sees the sunlight and moonlight, because there is nothing inside Taehyung that is blocking anything out from him anymore.

“Do you like it?” Taehyung asks as they walk back to the stairs to head outside and finally see their friends’ new homes.

Jungkook nods. “It’s nice.” He chuckles wryly. “I’m mostly too busy being in love with you to think about everything else that goes with our life, but to go from my tiny, poor village, to living outside, to all of this is insane. Even before, with our small, rundown apartment above the stable. All of those things compared to this. It’s so…” He shakes his head.

Taehyung does not understand. He knows what Jungkook is talking about, of course, but never in his life did he really struggle with wanting or needing. Everything he has wanted or needed, he could have it. He lived a comfortable life as a human, and the only time he lived a little less so was his home with Jungkook. And if Taehyung had not remembered exactly what his home with Jungkook looked like back then, his mind would have painted a mansion beyond belief because of the way he felt and the way he remembers those memories. He was so happy with such a simple life, and he is just as happy now – just a little more comfortable. But even so, he was never truly struggling, and the decades where he did not have a home, well, he does not recall them. So he is not living the extreme juxtaposition Jungkook is, to go from being homeless to living here.

So he just says, “I am happy that you like it here.”

Jungkook wraps his arm around his shoulders as they walk down the stairs. “I invited you into my home to live with me the first time, and you did it the second.”

Taehyung hums. “And you found me the first time, and I found you again.”

“You’re always late,” Jungkook tuts. It turns into a giggle from the both of them when Taehyung pokes Jungkook in the ribs.

They have seen their friends’ homes being built for months now. They saw the designs that Yoongi drew up for them to make their homes exactly how they wanted it, and Taehyung and Jungkook watched as his plans were made real. They only saw it all from their view from the manor though. They have been forbidden to go any closer than the manor’s back porch until the homes were fully, completely done, and they were moved in. Tonight is the night they can finally see them.

Taehyung and Jungkook step out into the spring night, the air with a chill to it this early in the season. The manor’s property is such a strange, silly place now, like it is its own neighborhood hidden from the world.

The manor’s back porch steps lead to the cobblestone path that goes through the garden, but it continues after the garden too now. The stones are just as weathered as the ones that have been there for decades, the grass peeking through the cracks as if it is an overgrown discovery. They follow the way, the sides of the path hugged by sunset-colored poppies that look so bright after months of winter. The path eventually leads to a small fountain, which serves as the center point that connects all of their homes (and a bird bath for the many birds who have flown to it after returning for the season). The circle around the fountain has three paths that branch out to each of the three homes. The two follow the one to the left first, which leads them to Jimin, Hoseok, and Yoongi’s house.

Taehyung did not know what he really expected when he was shown the blueprints for their home, but it certainly was nowhere close to this.

The path leads them to a cottage. The weathered exterior is made of grey, brown, and white brick and stone with a shingled roof. There are plenty of windows, all with charming window panes and ivy that climbs up around them. There is flourishing landscaping in front of it, blooming flowers and flower bushes with silly little figurines hidden around – a garden gnome and a fairy house and a toad, that he can spot just from here. It looks like a fairytale house in itself, nothing like the home one would think vampires live in (unlike Taehyung and Jungkook’s, which looks exactly like that).

It is the sweetest little (well, not very little, really) place Taehyung has ever seen, and he cannot wait to see inside. They walk up to the front door, their path encased by subtle little lanterns nuzzled in with the many colorful flowers. They ring the doorbell – which was such a silly detail to Taehyung, considering they live surrounded by nothing, and any guests they get wouldn’t really be guests, since they’d only ever be each other. Still, he rings the doorbell with a giggle. And another when Hoseok calls out, “Who is iiiiit?”

The door opens to Jimin’s smiling face. Beaming face, really, because Taehyung knows he is just as excited to show Taehyung as Taehyung is to see it all. “Hello,” Jimin says with his now-purple hair.

“Good evening,” Taehyung says.

“Did you have trouble finding the place?”

Taehyung boisterously laughs. “We managed to find it okay,” he says.

“Good.” Jimin turns and looks at Jungkook. “You can come inside.”

He steps aside, and Jungkook walks into his home. Taehyung goes to follow him, but he is stopped. He realizes that Jimin looked at only Jungkook when speaking, so the invitation has only been extended to Jungkook. And when Taehyung looks at Jimin, he can tell that this was done on purpose because of the way he is trying to hold his laughter inside.

Taehyung attempts to take a step past the threshold, but he physically cannot. It is not that there is some invisible force field halting him, but he is the one halting himself. He is unable to make himself even lift his leg if it is to take a step forward. It is as if he is glued to the ground, unless his intention becomes not to enter.

“Jimin-ah,” Taehyung starts to say, but it’s interrupted by Jimin’s, “Namjoon, Seokjin! Come inside!” And Seokjin and Namjoon who have made their way over step around Taehyung and disappear inside of Jimin’s house.

“Jimin-aaaaaah,” Taehyung whines. “Let me in!” All it’s met with is Jimin’s giggles, because he seems to be very much getting a kick out of this.

As is Jungkook, who says so innocently, “Aren’t you going to come in, sire?”

“You two are so very funny,” Taehyung says. He tries to make himself sound unamused, but seeing his best friend and his fledgling laugh and cause trouble together makes him happy even if he is usually the one on the receiving end of it. “May I please come in?”

“What’s the password?” Jimin asks.

Even as he thinks, Taehyung tries to fight through the bounds of their rule, but his struggle does not even show because of how tightly locked it is. “May I have a hint?”

“Tae!” Jimin says. “We made a code phrase!”

“Ahhh,” Taehyung says. “Yes.” Code words he and Jimin made in case they were ever kidnapped and held hostage and needed to ask for help, as if that would ever be a situation that they (two vampires) would ever be in, or would ever be in even if they were normal human people. “If either of us were to call the other, we are to say, ‘Hello, my alien.’”

“You remembered,” Jimin says thickly, emotion in his voice.

“Of course,” Taehyung chuckles. “May I come in now?”

“Will you hug me when you do?”

“Of course.”

“Kim Taehyung, I would like to invite you into my home.”

Taehyung’s body moves feeling like a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” he says with a bow, then he steps inside and right into Jimin’s arms. “You are just as mischievous as a little fledgling is,” he chuckles as he holds him.

Taehyung is in awe over the coziness of his friends’ house as they are given the tour. He really didn’t know what to expect of any of them, and it is sweet seeing this new side to their personality, the ways their personalities show in the home they wanted to create together. There are napping spaces and fireplaces, a woodworking studio and hobby room for Yoongi, a dance studio for Hoseok and Jimin, and many more rooms that are for the three of them together in different ways. Everything is in natural, earthy colors that looks like it belongs in spring and summer – so many greens and pinks and whites, perfect for a fairytale cottage. There are so many pictures of their family on the walls, a display of their quirky mug collection in the kitchen, and many cat beds and toys around the home since the cats around the manor’s property will definitely be welcome here (and seemingly able to come and go as they please, because Taehyung spots a little cat door too).

While the others are occupied with looking around, Yoongi pulls him aside, into a little reading nook carved out of the wall in the hallway. “Everything okay?” Taehyung asks in the prolonged silence.

“I just wanted to thank you,” Yoongi says. “We all do, but just… thanks, Tae. For letting us build our home here, but for taking all of us into your home in the first place. That’s just–thank you. You don’t know how much it meant to me that you took me in and let me stay, and you did it with all of us. At your heart, you’re a good person, Tae. I know you don’t think so, but you are. And I wouldn’t say that if it weren’t true. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“O-Oh…” Taehyung says. He swallows and clears his throat. “W-Well, you’re very welcome, Yoongi. There is no thanks needed in the first place. But you are welcome. I never regretted my decision even for a second. Thank y-you for sticking with me even when I was not very pleasant to be around. You are a very good friend. I am happy that you found your way here. Thank you for staying.”

Taehyung can tell that neither of them want to get more emotional in front of the other than they already are, so they join the group again – who is now filing out to go tour Namjoon and Seokjin’s house next.

Taehyung trails behind so Yoongi can have his emotions in private, and it leaves him as the last one to reach the other house. And it’s absolutely beautiful. It is a midcentury modern style, looking slightly geometrical but somehow not overly modern in the lovely way the style era is able to achieve. There are plenty of windows, with wood siding in places the windows are absent. The landscaping is bursting with plants rather than flowers like the others’ home, with hidden warm lights shining up the wood siding of the home. It all feels so natural and open. Taehyung already loves it.

He should have been expecting it when he is stopped on the doorstep again. He hears giggles from inside. “Sire,” Jungkook whines, reaching out for him like he misses him and isn’t teasing him again.

It doesn’t last as long though, because Namjoon notices and says, “Come on in, Tae.”

Taehyung shakes his head with a smile as he enters, then he is pulled beneath Jungkook’s arm with a kiss on his cheek. Taehyung loves so dearly to be teased by his silly fledgling.

Even when he has stepped inside, it somehow feels like they are outside. All of the windows make it feel so open, and the way it is decorated feels that way too. It keeps the midcentury modern theme of warm-toned wood with some light brick or stone accents, and the mixing of so many different materials from the earth aids the space so well in its intention. There are plants everywhere – on shelves along the wall, hanging in front of the window, a huge bird of paradise plant on the floor so tall that it brushes the ceiling.

The space is decorated with stylish but comfortable-looking furniture that fit the mood of the home. There is as much art as there are plants, and more books than both of those things combined. It is such a pretty, airy space, and Taehyung loves it. He thinks he will find himself spending a lot of time here, especially because it means Namjoon is here too.

They end the night all sitting together in the living’s rooms conversation pit, because Yoongi did not stray from making this a midcentury-style house down to every little detail (proven by the shag carpet within the conversation pit that Jungkook keeps running his fingers through).

Taehyung looks around him, at all of his friends. All of them talking and laughing and smiling together. Everyone looks so different from one another, with different personalities that might seem like they don’t fit together, but do so like puzzle pieces, because it is meant to be the seven of them. It will always be the seven of them, because they are a family. This is his family, and he will be with them forever.

He is pulled into Jungkook’s arms as Jungkook talks to Seokjin. It doesn’t even really seem like he was consciously doing it. He wrapped his arms around Taehyung and pulled him in, tucking him there just where he wants him. Taehyung relaxes in his arms, and he spends time with his friends until the sun begins to rise.

On the walk home, Jungkook shifts into his cute bat form and takes flight. Taehyung laughs to himself as he watches him fly around, doing his normal acrobatics in the air so gracefully because he really enjoys having wings. He soars through the air, circling around Taehyung until he finally glides in front of him and hangs himself from his leather necklace.

“I am going to go to the library to read,” Taehyung says when he walks them into their home. “Would you like to remain like this?” He looks down and finds Jungkook looking up at him. The little bat nods.

Taehyung walks to their library and opens the windows so he can allow the birdsongs to float in once they wake up for the morning. He sits in his usual reading chair and takes his book from the side table. He crosses his legs, then Jungkook drops from his necklace onto his stomach. He crawls around so he’s facing Taehyung and can look up at him when he’d like, then he stretches his wings out and lets them fall relaxed, so they’re hanging down each side of Taehyung’s thigh.

Once he is comfortably in place in the position he always assumes, he looks up at his sire with those big, black eyes. Taehyung raises his hand, and he begins to gently pet Jungkook’s little head with his thumb. He feels the vibration of Jungkook’s purrs against his leg, then he watches his little bat’s eyes close as he continues to purr. Taehyung opens his book and resumes his reading as he pets Jungkook and the sun begins to rise.

– ☾ –

“Are you going to tell me where we are going for our date so I know how to dress for it?” Taehyung asks as he stands in their closet in his robe, trying to pick out an outfit.

“Casual and comfortable,” Jungkook says. “And please don’t expect much. It’s just something fun and silly I wanted to do with you.”

“Every day with you feels like a gift,” Taehyung says as he flicks through his shirts. “Every second spent with you feels like a miracle, even when we are doing separate things in the same room. So going on a date with you, no matter how you feel it is, will always be beyond my expectations, because my whole life with you is more wonderful than my imagination would have been able to conceive of. Is this okay?” He holds out the shirt and pants he has chosen for Jungkook to look over. And Jungkook is standing there, watching him with parted lips. Taehyung realizes what he just said, but he was just speaking freely.

Jungkook walks over, and he kisses him. “I love you, sire,” he says quietly. “And that outfit will look nice on you.”

“I love you too, my little fledgling,” Taehyung says as he dresses. He looks himself over, and Jungkook comes over to hug him from behind as he gazes into the mirror. He is wearing an egg-shell colored shirt, unbuttoned partway down with the sleeves pulled up (only minding his terrible scars a little bit). His shirt is tucked into brown pants, which are baggier than he has worn them before, because he has been influenced by Jungkook’s style and guidance.

Jungkook who is wearing baggy black pants with a tight black shirt, with an arm that is now covered in tattoos because he has spent some time practising his art on himself. They suit him so well and make him very, very attractive.

They are quite a sight to behold, Taehyung thinks. Taehyung with the grey streak in his hair and more sprinkled throughout the black waves that fall into his eyes, which have wrinkles along the edges that are quite noticeable as they are, but even more so because of how much Jungkook makes him smile. Jungkook who looks younger, with the smoothness of his skin and his modern-looking style, his long hair partially up in a bun that makes him look more modern too. The way they look together used to be something Taehyung would grow insecure about – both a century ago and mere months ago. They have a rather sizable difference in age, and it shows in the way they look; it is not something someone would be surprised to find out. But now he thinks that they look… they look good together. A little strange and unexpected, but everything about them is strange and unexpected, so it fits right in. They fit right in with each other. They look beautiful together. They look like they are soulmates, meant to be.

Taehyung turns around in his fledgling’s arms and kisses him. “I am ready now, my love,” he says.

Jungkook takes his hand and tucks his phone and wallet into his pockets, then they step out into the spring evening. It is not very late at all, but with summer not yet here, the days are still on the shorter side, and it still allows them to go outside before the city has gone to sleep yet. They usually wait to take their nightly walks until everyone is gone and it feels like it is only them walking through the city, so Jungkook has not been exposed to humans for a prolonged amount of time very often. Taehyung has full faith in him though, and Jungkook has assured him many times that humans do not even smell very appealing because of how used to Taehyung’s blood he has become.

When they reach the forest, they take their time walking through it now. Now that the leaves and plants have returned, Jungkook told him that it is not scary anymore like it was in autumn and winter, so they enjoy their slow stroll through the trees. It is nice to hear the rustle of leaves again, to hear the few birds that are still awake. It is nice to smell the color returning to the air and not have everything be so barren.

“What do you have planned for us?” Taehyung asks, their hands gently swinging between them.

“Have you ever heard of Build-A-Bear?”

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head. “I don’t believe so, no.”

“It’s a place where you can make your own stuffed animals.”

The furrow between Taehyung’s eyebrows deepens further. “Like taxidermy?” he says. “I love you, sweetheart, but I do not want to build one of those. I am surprised that you want to.”

They are stopped from walking because he is pulled into Jungkook’s arms and covered in kisses, which he has grown used to, because he knows it means he is mistaken about something and Jungkook finds his ignorance on modern things cute. Taehyung is relieved that this is one of those situations, because he really did not want to engage in taxidermy. He closes his eyes and smiles as Jungkook kisses him to his heart’s content.

“Not taxidermy,” Jungkook says when they continue walking again. “Stuffed animals like, you know, plushies? Teddy bears and stuff?”

“Ahhh,” Taehyung says with a nod. That makes much more sense. “Yes, I understand now.”

“So at Build-A-Bear, you make your own. You pick out what kind of animal you want and fill it with stuffing and dress them in outfits that you can choose.”

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows again. “I do not understand.”

“About what?”

“It is a store where you create your own teddy bear?” he asks. “How does one have time to do that all? Simply creating the outer part of the bear would be so time consuming, and sewing it all together too – and embroidering the nose and mouth and putting the eyes in. Not to mention making the clothes that they dress in.”

Jungkook bites his lip to keep his smile away. “You’ll see when we get there, sire.”

– ☾ –

Taehyung is certain his eyes are sparkling as they come upon the workshop. It is lovely and charming, with its patchwork logo and warm-colored decor, and that is just from the outside. It is nothing like all of the other businesses he has seen in the city; there is an edge of whimsy to it that he thinks the city could do with.

He perks up when they enter the shop. It is so warm inside, from the temperature to the colors to the way the humans greet them. The humans’ gazes linger on them like humans always do, but Taehyung is looking around him in awe while Jungkook is looking at him in awe.

It is such a cute theme inside! The yellows and reds and blues, the displays and stations and how everything is workshop-themed. And they get to build their own bear! It makes perfect sense to him now.

“Do you want to make one for each other?”

Taehyung nods excitedly. “I am going to make you.”

“Then I’ll make you too,” Jungkook says. He leads them over to one wall, where there is a display of every different stuffed animal they can create. Several different kinds of classic teddy bears, along with cows and frogs and sheep and foxes and koalas and so many more types of animals. In front of the formed animals are what appears to be their skins. It is an unfortunate sight to behold, to see them thrown in their bins without their stuffing, but he and Jungkook will be giving them a life. “So you pick out which one you want to make and you can grab it.”

Taehyung spotted his choice the moment they began walking over. He plucks what will soon become a grey and white rabbit out of its bin. He hears Jungkook sigh, because he knew exactly what his sire was going to pick for him, because it really just is the most accurate. Taehyung watches Jungkook look through his options, and he finally decides on a cute light brown bear.

“Now what?” Taehyung asks.

“Now we go here,” Jungkook says, leading him to the area beside them, where there are jars of little fabric hearts, “and we pick out a heart that we’ll put in our animals.”

Taehyung is enchanted. His heart feels so warm from how lovely and wholesome of an experience this is. He feels hopeful, for some reason, that something like this exists. Perhaps humans will be okay if they were able to think of creating a place so magical. He and Jungkook both reach for the jar of dark red hearts at the same time, and their hands collide. They look at each other and softly smile. Of course they would share the same heart.

Jungkook takes one and hands it to Taehyung, and Taeyhung takes one and hands it to Jungkook. Arrows on the floor lead them over to a worker who is sitting at a big machine full of cotton that is spinning around as if it were a dryer for clothes. The woman’s eyes are sparkling just like Taehyung’s, and Taehyung does not even mind the implication in the way she is looking at his boyfriend, because this is just such a pleasant experience. Her eyes widen when they land on Taehyung too, and a blush comes to her cheeks as she takes in both of them.

She finally clears her throat and gathers herself. “Have you two made your wishes yet?”

Taehyung's eyes go wide as he shakes his head. He can tell that Jungkook is holding himself back from his usual attack of kisses, because they are surrounded by children and regular people at the moment. So he just says, “No, we haven’t.”

“Press your hearts between your palms to warm them up for your bear and bunny, and close your eyes. Think of a wish, and when you’re ready, cup your hands around your hearts and whisper your wish to it.”

Taehyung could cry. The warmth of his hands warming the heart for his bunny. He–wow.

He closes his eyes and thinks of a wish. He giggles when he feels a quick peck on his cheek, because Jungkook couldn’t entirely hold himself back. It must be a feat of strength, though, to stop himself at just one kiss.

Taehyung brings the fabric heart closer to himself, and he whispers, “I wish for endless sweet, silly, easy moments like this with my Jungkook-ah.”

He realizes when he opens his eyes and finds Jungkook looking at him softly that he could hear him even when whispering into his hands. And he, of course, can hear Jungkook too, because he would be able to spot his voice even from across the city.

“I wish for my sire to always know how loved by me he is, for him to never doubt it.”

They share a private look before Taehyung hands his heart and his rabbit to the woman. His eyes widen in excitement as he watches her begin to fill his bunny with cotton and make it come to life. The head, the arms, his legs, then his body. She tucks his heart right in, then she easily sews its back shut and hands him his grey and white speckled bunny. Taehyung holds him as he watches her do the same to Jungkook’s teddy bear, then she directs them to the clothes area to pick their outfits out (with longing stares at their backs as they go).

It is like they have an entire closet of clothes just to pick out for their stuffed animals. Cardboard hangers show endless styles of shirts and pants and skirts and dresses and full outfit sets, then tons of shoes and accessories as well. It is almost like their own closet back at home. Well, not really. At all actually, in any way. But still, there is so much here! Taehyung is tickled by the fact that somewhere there is a clothing designer for these stuffed animals. After he and Jungkook have taken a general look around, they get started.

“No peeking!” Jungkook says as he angles his body away to dress Taehyung’s bear in something.

“I’m not!” Taehyung insists. (He was.)

He trails his eyes over all of the black clothes options. He is sure Jungkook is doing the same with all of the brown ones. He finally puts together an outfit in his head and giggles to himself as he begins to dress the bunny.

As he is fitting its arms through the little t-shirt sleeves, he thinks about what a turn of events his life has taken. He thinks about it often whenever nice things happen, but this? He is in a store, around humans, and children, with a boyfriend who is his soulmate, dressing a stuffed bunny at a kids’ store. This could not be more different from how his life was this time last year, or this time last century.

When the shirt is already halfway on, he gasps and yanks it off when he spots something. He yanks it off its little hanger and puts it first before putting the other t-shirt over it. He giggles excitedly as he fits the bunny’s legs through each leg of the pants he has chosen, then he looks through his shoes selection before moving on to accessories.

Around ten minutes later, he and Jungkook are both done. They hold their creations behind their backs, then say, “One, two, three!” and bring them around to show to each other.

They erupt into gleeful, giddy giggles seeing the ways they made each other.

Taehyung is obsessed with his bear. He is wearing a burgundy cable knit sweater that feels very soft and high-quality to be the sweater for a teddy bear. It is paired with dark brown trousers, loafers, a brown watch, and gold glasses. It is so adorable and looks exactly like him, as much as a teddy bear can.

In Jungkook’s hands is a grey and white bunny wearing a black t-shirt, but it has a long-sleeved shirt under that, made of mesh sleeves with black tattoos printed onto them so it looks as if the bunny has tattoos on his arms. It is paired with black cargo pants and black chunky boots, and Jungkook is beaming. “This looks just like me!” he says.

“So does mine!” Taehyung says.

They bring their creations over to the computer, where they are able to make birth certificates for their bears. Jungkook’s is named Jungkookie, and when Jungkook hands Taehyung his birth certificate to tuck into his coat pocket, he sees that his is named Taetae.

But then he notices that on the “made by” line, it says: Kim Jungkook.

Taehyung looks at Jungkook, his heart beating faster in his chest, his eyes wide. He wonders if Jungkook can feel the rise in his heartbeat through the bond somehow. Taehyung doesn’t say anything because he isn’t sure what to even say. Jungkook just shrugs with a smile like it is no big deal.

“I never came from a good family or felt attached to my name, and I’m yours,” he says, shrugging again so nonchalantly. “I’m your fledgling and you’re my sire. And we’re each other’s soulmates. We’re wearing rings. We have the bond. We’re each other’s in every possible way. I’m yours.”

Tears stream down Taehyung’s cheeks. Jungkook chuckles as he steps closer and brushes them away with thumbs, then kisses them away too. “Is that okay with you?” he asks quietly, sounding insecure now. “I mean, I didn’t ask, so…”

Taehyung holds onto Jungkook’s wrist and nuzzles his cheek into his palm. “Of course it is, darling,” he says quietly. “You are mine. That is your name. That is who you are.”

They finally pay for their bear and bunny (with lingering stares from every single person in the shop because they are enchanted by the pair of vampires), then they step back into the spring night with their mini animal versions of themselves held in their arms.

“Now what?” Taehyung asks. Jungkook pulls one of his arms from around his bear so he can hold his hand.

“Thought we could just take a walk like we always do.”

“That sounds wonderful.”

The city is still awake, many of its inhabitants bustling around them to make their way home after a long work day. Taehyung keeps an eye on Jungkook, because they are around more humans than they ever have been. They spent the fall and winter holed up inside for many reasons – Jungkook had just been turned, they found out who they really are and did not want to do anything but be cozied up together, they both seem to be homebodies by nature – but now that the warmer months are coming with life beginning to bloom around them again, it feels more natural and appealing to be outside.

Jungkook seems to be doing perfectly. He does not show even an ounce of interest toward the humans. Some even brush shoulders with him if the sidewalk is too crowded or they are being the clumsy humans that they are, and Jungkook does not show any response at all, other than huddling close to Taehyung – but only because he is sensitive to crowds, not because they are crowds of humans.

Taehyung wraps his arm around him to keep him close and safe, and he can feel Jungkook’s relief through the bond. He can feel him purring too now that he is tucked under his sire’s arm.

Still, even though he seems to be doing okay, Taehyung asks, “How are you feeling? Being around humans?”

“I’m okay,” Jungkook says. He sounds like he means it.

“Do you feel tempted at all?”

Jungkook makes a disgusted face that makes Taehyung laugh. “Not even a little bit. I think I’d throw up if I tried to drink their blood. It wouldn’t feel right at all. Only yours.”

“Well, that is good,” Taehyung says. They turn onto an emptier street, so Taehyung unwraps his arm from around Jungkook’s shoulders and takes his hand again so he can walk more freely. He knows Jungokok likes to walk on top of the flower bed edges around the trees they pass, proven by the way he hops up onto the next one to use it as a balance beam before jumping off again.

“Was it hard for you?” Jungkook asks. “I mean, I know it was, but how long did it take for you to be able to be around humans without attacking them?”

Taehyung tries to think. It is hard to track his history because of how inoften he was fully himself. He thinks at least half of his time spent alive is lost to him. “I cannot say for certain, but I know it was at least several decades. I think that is the case for most vampires when they were turned. Which is why you are so incredible, my love. It took you a mere season. Not even that. We were going outside during the winter, and you were still okay. You are a very impressive little fledgling.”

“It’s because of you,” Jungkook says. Taehyung knows that is partially true, but he thinks most of it is just that Jungkook is a very special person.

Taehyung never noticed the way the city decorates for each season. Now that it is spring, there are baskets hanging from the streetlights filled with flowers – and certainly birds’ nests too, although those cannot be seen from the ground. Tulips are planted around the leaf-filled trees, and so many businesses’ windows they pass are painted in different springtime illustrations. Humans are no longer wrapped in winter gear, and the lack of layers makes the city quieter too when all of the humans are walking around them.

“Would you ever be interested in going back to see your parents?” Taehyung asks hesitantly.

Jungkook shrugs, seeming unbothered and disinterested. “I dunno. Not really. I never felt an attachment or a connection to them. I never really loved them. Definitely didn’t like them. And I think those things were mutual, so I don’t see a reason to go back. I didn’t really have any friends in my village either, so.” He shrugs.

“Were you not sad to be exiled?”

“Not really,” Jungkook says again. “I was more sad that that was my life. Like, sucks that I had a family who didn’t care about me, but I didn’t care about that in itself. I dunno. I guess I was more upset about the principle of it all.” Jungkook squeezes his hand and looks at him with a soft smile. “I couldn’t be happier that it happened though.”

Taehyung does not want to agree that he is happy that Jungkook’s parents didn’t love him, but he does so silently. The conversation sparks something in him, and he asks, “Do you remember that one evening when you told me about your childhood?”

Jungkook tilts his head to the side. “Which one?”

“It was autumn. And we were sitting at the kitchen table.”

“Oooooh,” Jungkook says. “I remember.”

Jungkook often joked that Taehyung was like his househusband. Taehyung was always there with a warm meal for Jungkook when he got off work. And while Jungkook worked, Taehyung cleaned and tidied the apartment. He was confined to that space during all of the daylight hours while Jungkook worked, and it was the least he could do. He enjoyed it anyway, taking care of Jungkook in this way. It made him feel more important, more essential, to have a type of role there, as if it paid his due to be allowed to stay, even though Jungkook wouldn’t have him leave even if all he did all day was sleep and neglect everything.

Since Taehyung was very good at staying on top of the cleaning and cooking, and the subject of his art was not there for him to paint, he had to acquire other hobbies. He always wanted his hobbies to be centered around Jungkook in some way, because that was what his life was centered around.

And one particular hobby became making tea. He planted flowers and herbs in their window boxes outside, and he learned how to dry them when they were ready to be picked. He began making tea bags with the things he grew and spices he sent Jungkook out to get, and after Jungkook ate dinner, they would end the night with sitting at the table while Jungkook drank tea that Taehyung made for him. He began to learn his favorite flavors and things he liked and didn’t like, and it allowed him to make even better drinks to help his love unwind and relax after a day at work.

It became one of Taehyung’s favorite parts of the day. These talks around the kitchen table. They talked about their days as the sun set, and when night had fallen, their topics became deeper like the sun beneath the horizon. They shared parts of themselves with each other. Big things and little things. Things they’d never told another person either because they were so mundane they felt they were not worth mentioning, or because they were so big that they were afraid to share them.

This night was a conversation with the latter. He and Jungkook had loved each other for a year at that point, but the topic of his childhood had never come up. Taehyung had never pushed, because he knew that if Jungkook wanted to talk about something, he would bring it up himself. He had always been curious about why Jungkook was alone, never mentioning any family or friends, but Taehyung never asked.

Jungkook finally spoke about it that night. He talked about having parents, but neither of his parents wanted him (the same ones he was born with again) so he was given up so young, pretty much the moment he was born. He told him about growing up in an orphanage. How everyone there – both those working and living – were unkind to him, and he never understood why. There were many things Taehyung learned that night, but none of those things are what defined the night for him.

It was how Jungkook blurted out, “Are you my boyfriend?”

Taehyung stared at him. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. After several silent seconds, he finally said, “What?”

Jungkook was blushing up to the tips of his ears. “Y-You know, are you my boyfriend?”

Taehyung was not very up-to-date on things like this. When he was last lucid, “dating” was very different. There was courting involved. Each other’s families involved. Social dynamics, wealth, land inheritance. The word “boyfriend” was not even one formerly in his vocabulary.

“J-Just, um, one of the men who borrowed one of the stable’s horses… He kind of made it known that he was interested in me. And he wanted to spend more time together, he said.”

“I see…” Taehyung said. He quickly stood, his chair scraping against the wood floor. He took Jungkook’s empty tea cup from in front of him. He brought it to the sink and began washing it, keeping his back turned to Jungkook. “And what did you say to this man?” He tried to keep his voice neutral, but he was sure he wasn’t doing a great job.

“He didn’t really give me time to reply…” Jungkook said. “He just told me to think about it and that he’d be back.”

“I see,” Taehyung said. He turned the sink off. “Well, I am going to take my nightly walk. I am sure you are tired because your day was longer than usual, so you need not come.” He did not give Jungkook time to respond before he was already out of the apartment.

“You handled that very maturely,” Jungkook now says, over a century later as he laughs and balances along another ledge he is walking across.

“Well!” Taehyung says. He really does not have any things to defend himself with. He really didn’t handle it well. “I did not know it was a proper conversation we needed to have, to declare ourselves each other’s. I did not know how dating at that time took place. I was living with you, and we were making love, and declaring our love for one another. I thought that made it clear that we were each other’s!”

“Yeah, I didn’t handle it that great either,” Jungkook admits through a mutter.

Jungkook was already asleep by the time Taehyung got back. Well, he was pretending to be asleep. Taehyung knew him enough and had spent enough nights beside him to know that the way he was breathing then was not the way he breathes when asleep. He did not mention it though, and he carried on pretending Jungkook was not awake.

He slid into bed. He carefully moved Jungkook aside and adjusted him so his boy was asleep on top of him like he always was every night. He wrapped his arms around him. Nuzzled his nose into his hair. “You are mine, my love,” he whispered. He kissed the top of his head. “And I am yours. I am the only one who is allowed to have you.”

Jungkook did not show any indication that he was able to hear what he said. He just pretended to sleep until he was no longer faking.

The following morning, Taehyung made breakfast for his love like he always did. Neither of them spoke to one another though. It felt tense in a way it never had. Neither of them wanted to approach the topic that hung so heavy in the air, so they just dealt with the uncomfortable quiet.

As Jungkook ate, Taehyung finally asked, “Do you have a busy day?” Not because he was trying to make conversation – because he was being petty that Jungkook was not talking, so he was not going to either – but because he had a plan.

“Not really,” Jungkook said. “All the horses are rented out, so I’m just going to clean their stalls. It’s easier when they’re not there.”

“I see,” Taehyung said. “Well, have a nice day. I am going to bathe.” Even though he was being petty, he would never send Jungkook off without a kiss. This one was only on the top of his head though as he passed him on his way to the bathroom.

He did bathe like he said he would, and he heard the front door open and close as Jungkook travelled down the stairs to start his work day.

Taehyung finished getting ready and dressed. He looked himself over in the mirror for several minutes, then he went to the window. He stayed out of the way of the sun’s rays, and he watched. He knew the horses that were in the stable, and he watched until every single one of them had been led away by the day’s riders.

Once the final one had finally gone, Taehyung headed down the stairs. It was not often that Taehyung was able to see Jungkook during the day, because he could not be around the horses without causing them to panic – except for on a couple occasions when the sweetest horse (and Jungkook’s favorite) was the only one around, and she was in a particularly agreeable mood and allowed Taehyung to be in the same room as her.

With all of them gone now, and with the cloudy day they were having, he happily trotted down the stairs to find Jungkook gathering some paperwork at the front table where he must be organizing the last of the day’s renting forms.

His head shot up at the strange sound of someone coming down their stairs, and his eyebrows deeply furrowed seeing Taehyung. “Hey,” he said.

“Hello,” Taehyung replied.

“Uh… what are you doing down here?”

Taehyung shrugged and sat in the chair behind the front table, beside Jungkook. “The horses are not here, so I thought I could spend the day with you.”

Jungkook stared at him, then a slow smirk came to his lips. “Is that so?” he asked.

“Mhm,” Taehyung nodded and crossed his legs, settling in.

“No other reason?” he asked. “Just wanted to spend time with me?”

“Exactly,” Taehyung said.

Jungkook was clearly holding in a laugh. “Alright then,” he said. He closed the file he was working on and tucked it in a drawer, then he walked back to the stalls to get to work while Taehyung stayed put.

They did not talk, but the silence didn’t hold any of the same discomfort from this morning; it was more like just existing together in peace like they often did. There was definitely amusement from Jungkook’s end too though as he kept glancing over at Taehyung and the entrance to the stable.

It wasn’t until the afternoon that the guest Taehyung had been waiting for appeared. He could tell that it was him right away with the way he sauntered right in. He was dressed in a posh suit – so different from Jungkook in his dirty stable worker clothes – and a wide-brim hat. He was clearly trying to show his status, but all it did was show the stark contrast between who he and Jungkook are – Jungkook who is simple and sweet and wants nothing to do with anything more than what he needs. The man’s swaggered footsteps halted when he saw Taehuyung at the front table. Taehyung also dressed sensibly since he dressed in Jungkook’s clothes, but Jungkook always told him that there was a poised and polished air around him naturally, even when in his faded clothes.

“Oh, hello,” the man said, picking his confidence back up seamlessly. “Is Jungkook here?”

Taehyung held his smirk back when he turned and called out, “Jungkook-ah, darling, you have someone asking for you.” He turned back to the man. “It will be just a moment.”

Jungkook walked over, wiping his dusty hands on his pants. Taehyung absolutely preened when Jungkook rested his hand on the back of his neck as he stood beside him, a small, silent show of affection. Of course his Jungkook would not lean into his jealousy and make him feel bad; of course he would assure him of their love even when they are not getting along harmoniously.

“Hello, Woojin-ssi,” Jungkook said. “How can I help you?”

Woojin seemed unaffected. Seemed, though. Taehyung had been able to hear his heartbeat, the way his heart rate picked up as he looked between the two of them. It did not show outwardly though when he asked, “Have you thought about my offer?”

Feeling settled and not wanting to make Jungkook feel awkward and uncomfortable, Taehyung decided to excuse himself. He stood and smoothed down his pants, then he turned to Jungkook. “I will give you two some time to talk. I will be in our kitchen making lunch for you, so please come up when you are done.” Then he left Jungkook with a kiss just at the edge of his lips, smiling to himself as he went with the view of Jungkook’s blush in his head.

He headed upstairs and got started on making lunch just as he said, and Jungkook finally walked up the stairs just when he was done. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, his arms crossed, watching him with a smirking smile.

Taehyung turned and leaned back against the kitchen counter. He sighed. “I would like to be your boyfriend,” he said. “I did not know I was meant to ask. I am unfamiliar with the current day’s dating customs. I–I w-was under the impression that we were already each other’s. I love you so dearly, Jungkook-ah. Am I not showing it enough? Am I not loving you enough that you would think I would not mind if you entertained the possibility of other lovers? It would end me, darling. It would. You are my life. I do not want you with anybody else. You are mine as I am yours.”

Jungkook crossed the room and took him into his arms as he began to cry. He had held it in since the night before, but now it was all coming out. Perhaps it was an overreaction, but the mere prospect of Jungkook with others could send him into a fit.

“Tae, baby,” Jungkook said softly, running his hand up and down his back. “I didn’t mean for it to get this way. I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry. I brought it up so we could have the ‘boyfriends’ talk, not to try to make you jealous. I only brought it up so we could talk about it, not for what it became.” Taehyung’s head was tilted up, and he and Jungkook looked at each other. “My baby,” Jungkook said softly, sadly. “Even the thought of me with someone else makes me feel sick. I can’t even think about you with anyone else or I will die. You are my life. You are my world. There’s no one else. There will never be anyone else. Only you, baby. I love you.” He kissed him so softly. “I could have brought it up better; Woojin asking was just what made me think about how we hadn’t talked about any of this. We do everything that boyfriends do; we just never put a name to it. And I want to.”

“Soulmates?” Taehyung suggested wryly. Jungkook looked like he was not expecting that though. Taehyung thought that it was so silly. Of course Jungkook was his soulmate.

“W-Well, if you think so, then that too…”

“Will you be my boyfriend?” Taehyung asked quietly. The sentence felt foreign in his mouth.

Jungkook sighed. “Yes. Yes please.”

They moved to the bed, needing to hold one another as they often did after moments of strong emotion. Jungkook’s lunch went forgotten as he told him what happened downstairs. How Woojin had clearly seen that Jungkook belonged to someone else, but it did not stop him. They giggled together, feeling like they were the only two people in the world, the only two people who loved as deeply as them.

And it still feels that way now as they walk through the empty city, hand in hand with stuffed animals in their arms. “And now we are more,” Taehyung says. ‘Boyfriends’ feels so small to describe what the two of them are. Even ‘soulmates’ does not feel like it cuts it. They are Taehyung and Jungkook. They are their own defining thing. Taehyung and Jungkook.

– ☾ –

“You’re cuddly today,” Jungkook says as his hand travels up and down Taehyung’s arm.

It is true. Taehyung feels extra clingy and needy today, like he just needs to be closer and closer to Jungkook. Even as they are lying together in bed naked, lying half on top of Jungkook with Jungkook’s arms around him, he wants to be closer. He has been nuzzling Jungkook and kissing every inch of him that he can reach, all while feeling Jungkook purring beneath him and through the bond.

“I am always cuddly, thank you very much,” Taehyung says.

“You are,” Jungkook agrees, nuzzling into his hair before kissing him there.

“Today’s nice,” Taehyung says.

They have spent the entire morning in bed, the curtains in their bedroom thrown open to let the cloudy, storming morning in. Thunder has been rolling across the sky while raindrops patter on their foggy windows. They have been just like this: naked and holding each other, sharing little kisses while they speak calmly and freely or enjoy the comforting silence together. It has been lovely.

“It is,” Jungkook says. “Every day is nice with you though.”

Taehyung smiles and tilts his head up to kiss Jungkook’s lips. “My darling boy,” he says. A kiss. “My little fledgling.” Another. “I love you so dearly.”

“I love you too, baby,” Jungkook says. Taehyung can both see and feel the happiness Jungkook is radiating, the contentedness.

Taehyung studies Jungkook’s face. His eyes catch on every one of Jungkook’s little beauty marks. It makes his heart skip several beats seeing how much darker and more pronounced the one beneath his lips is compared to the others because of how often Taehyung spent kissing him there. It makes his heart ache knowing he has one on his own lips for the very same reason. He wonders if they'll keep developing more through their long life together. 

He looks at the one of Jungkook’s cheek. He leans in to kiss it. The one on his nose. He kisses him there too. Long kisses on his lips as he slowly moves on top of him. He leans back, and his eyes travel around his body, searching for more.

Then he decides to just let him lead himself. Rather than searching, he leans down to kiss Jungkook where he wants to kiss him. The spot behind Jungkook’s ear that makes him shiver. The dip of his collarbone. His pectoral muscle. Everywhere his lips press, he finds a beauty mark already there.

He trails kisses down his body, finding more beauty marks to guide him like they are stepping stones. As he kisses him all over, Jungkook’s hand combs through his hair. He just silently watches him with a soft smile and a soft purr.

He kisses his hip bone. He kisses beneath it. He kisses his inner thigh. There is a beauty mark right on each spot. His beautiful boy is covered in them. It has never been a secret how much Taehyung adores him. His body is proof of how openly and passionately he adores this boy.

He moves between his legs as Jungkook just watches him, twirling the grey streak in his hair around his finger. He leans in to where Jungkook’s cock, half hard with a shallow puddle of precum pooling there, is resting against his stomach. He takes a deep inhale, moaning as his own cock grows harder from the scent of Jungkook’s arousal. He presses his nose against the hair above Jungkook’s cock and does the same thing again, making his cock drip and his mouth wanting to drool. “Fuck,” he hears Jungkook whisper as he watches him.

Taehyung’s eyes flit up to Jungkook. Taehyung opens his mouth and wraps his lips around the head of his cock. As soon as he tastes him, his eyes flutter closed. He can never help but be overcome by the taste, by how soft he is between his lips. He licks the slit to clear all of the precum away, feeling the taste settle across his tongue. He lets his cock fall from his mouth, then he licks along the length of the shaft, his eyes not straying from Jungkook’s as he does it.

He turns his head and begins sucking on the underside of his cock, up and down it from the base to the head. He has to pause and take a breath to gather himself when Jungkook says, “You make me feel so good, sire.” His forehead rests against Jungkook’s hipbone as he breathes. It is several seconds before he returns back to his cock. He takes it fully into his mouth this time, bobbing his head in a slow rhythm. “Look at me.” Taehyung’s eyes instantly snap up. Jungkook swears. “So beautiful. Fuck. So beautiful, Tae. You have no idea.” Taehyung flushes all the way up to the tips of his ears as he shyly looks away, feeling bashful as if he does not have Jungkook’s cock down his throat.

Taehyung chokes on it because he laughs when Jungkook hands him their bottle of lube. He pulls his cock out of his throat and coughs, then he takes the bottle. “Would you like to bottom, sweetheart?” he asks. Jungkook nods. “Alright then.” He slowly strokes Jungkook’s cock, taking all of him in as he lies there for him. He is spread out so comfortably, so relaxed in watching his boyfriend suck his cock. “I will make you feel so good, darling.”

“I know,” Jungkook says. Taehyung can feel his excitement and anticipation.

Taehyung uncaps the bottle of the lube while the room briefly flashes with a burst of lightning, followed by a roar of thunder. He takes Jungkook's leg and lifts it. He kisses the side of his foot, then his ankle, then he bends his leg back to his chest to expose him better. “My beautiful boy,” he says as he pours some lube onto his fingers. “I am as enchanted by you as I was the first moment I saw you. This strange, pretty human who had captured my attention more than once. You are still as captivating as always, my love. Still as beautiful. Still as gorgeous and adorable and lovely.” Jungkook moans when he slides two fingers inside, because Taehyung knows he can take it. “And you still sound as beautiful as you always have too.” He begins slowly thrusting his fingers in and out, scissoring them apart when he pulls them out each time. He knows they have already broken each other in, that they make love enough to never really need to be prepared in this way for the next time. Still, Taehyung likes doing it because he likes to feel Jungkook in this way. He likes feeling inside of Jungkook’s body, hearing his moans, hearing how he is making him feel good selflessly, without Taehyung getting anything physically out of it.

And he likes to hear Jungkook beg. “Please, sire, just fuck me.” He moans, his toes curling. “Please, I’m ready.”

“You know I do not and will not ‘fuck you,’ darling,” Taehyung says. “Ask me nicely, in the correct way.”

“Taaaaaaaae,” Jungkook whines through a laugh. “You don’t realize how cringey it is to say that since you’re older!”

“It is ‘cringey,’ as you say, to make love with me? My feelings are hurt, darling. My heart is wounded.”

“No, it’s cringey to say that!”

“Well, if you do not ask your sire nicely, I will put my clothes on and get back in bed.” Taehyung was anticipating the way Jungkook pounces for many reasons: because that is something his bratty fledgling would do, because he knows the way Jungkook’s pupils dilate before he does so, because he can feel everything through the bond before he sees it on the outside. So he was prepared and sends Jungkook lying back down onto his back again, bouncing against the mattress. It is the first time he has not allowed Jungkook to attack him, and Taehyung laughs at how shocked Jungkook looks. He definitely allows his fledgling to get away with way too much.

Jungkook sighs. “Tae,” he says. “Sire. Will you please make love to me?” Taehyung laughs at the grimace on Jungkook’s face. It is replaced with a smile.

“Of course, my love,” Taehyung says. Jungkook spreads his legs apart for him, but Taehyung pulls him up. He pulls him completely off the bed so they are both standing. He can see Jungkook doing math and physics equations in his head over how they are going to be having sex if they are both standing in front of each other, facing each other.

Taehyung takes Jungkook’s hand and walks him toward the big windows across their bedroom. “The rain is nice, isn’t it?” he asks. The cloudiness outside, the sound of it, the way the windows are fogged up.

Taehyung backs Jungkook up against the windows, crowding into him. He kisses him as he directs Jungkook’s arms around his neck. He can tell when Jungkook gets the idea when the kiss has a smirk to it. Taehyung is grateful for their strength, because it takes no effort to hold Jungkook up. It will take no physical effort to fuck him while holding him either.

He presses Jungkook’s back against the rainy window. He holds him up with one hand, and he uses the other to direct his cock to his hole.

They both give up on the kiss as he slowly sinks into him. Jungkook’s head falls back against the window, his eyes rolling back until they close. His lips part as a soft moan tumbles out. He looks so beautiful. Taehyung’s eyes flit to his neck. He looks at the scar there, in the shape of his teeth. Then at the many beauty marks littered all over his neck surrounding it. Jungkook is so loved.

Taehyung gently kisses the scar he gave him, as softly as he can. It is how he always kisses him there. It is how Jungkook kisses the scars on his arm and his throat. It is how he kisses his lips when he tilts his head back down again to whisper that he loves him.

Taehyung slowly begins to move inside of him as they kiss even slower. The sound of the pattering raindrops accompanies the sounds of their soft kisses. The water droplets slide down the window as Taehyung slides almost all the way out of Jungkook, and a roll of thunder sounds across the sky as Taehyung slides back in.

Jungkook clings to him so sweetly like a needy fledgling, and Taehyung holds him so securely like a loving sire. Their tongues touch and tangle like a sire and fledgling’s never do. Taehyung bites Jungkook’s bottom lip, and Jungkook does the same to his, and they kiss with their blood mixing together to taste themselves on their tongues.

Taehyung never thrusts into him harder or faster. This isn’t the time for burning passion or desperate urgency. Today has been a sleepy, calm day of lying in bed during the spring showers. The way they make love is just another form of that. Slow and unhurried, sleepy and calm.

Their foreheads press together, their breath hot between them like the fog clinging to the windows, drawn to their body heat. “Do you know how loved you are?” Taehyung whispers to Jungkook. “Eternally beloved. Every part of you. You are so loved.” He kisses the tears on Jungkook’s cheeks away. “My darling boy. You are my life.”

Jungkook sniffles. “I love you, Tae,” he whispers, his voice weak. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re so special. So good, Tae.” He leans back to look into his eyes as Taehyung fucks him like they have all the time in the world. “You are so good, Tae. You are so good to me. You’re so good at loving me and taking care of me, because you’re good.” Taehyung shudders as he comes. His eyes squeeze shut as he moans quietly, but he still continues fucking Jungkook. The slide is wetter now with his cum smearing inside of his boy, and he throbs at the thought of marking him so thoroughly.

Taehyung makes love to him slowly. He does not rush, nor does he try to make him lose his mind in pleasure. He is slow and gentle. He wants him to feel his body, feel his cock reaching inside of him as his cum drips out. Taehyung keeps his cock aimed at his prostate, but it is only given the gentlest of caresses. It still makes Jungkook’s cock twitch; he can feel it between their bodies.

Jungkook kisses him. He kisses him as if he is good. As if he is deserving of a love so soft and kind. He feels when Jungkook comes. When he paints his stomach, and it presses against Taehyung’s because of how close he is being held. Jungkook’s fingers bury in Taehyung’s hair and grip tightly onto the strands, clinging to him tighter to be held more securely during something so vulnerable.

Even as his orgasm passes, Taehyung continues to make love to him. They have all of the time in the world. He is going to use it. He kisses him softly as raindrops patter against the windows, sliding down just as slowly as Taehyung makes love to his fledgling.

Chapter Text

“Beautiful, beautiful boy,” Taehyung muses out loud as he drags his paintbrush across the canvas, leaving a streak of dark blue behind. He glances over just to see the way Jungkook blushes. Even when the majority of every day is spent telling Jungkook how loved he is, how special, how precious, how gorgeous, how beautiful he is, the compliments still get to him so cutely.

The two are spending the night outside. Summer has so sweetly announced its arrival, bringing with it warm nights and a hint of nostalgia for nothing in particular; summer nights just always feel like nostalgia in the present moment.

The temperature of the weather does not really affect them, but when the leaves and birds and summertime insects have returned, and Taehyung has put in the work to bring their garden back to life (for all of them), it is a nicer time to spend outside.

So they sit on the veranda like they do most nights, and Taehyung paints Jungkook, his eternal muse. Taehyung has always found his veranda to be a pleasant place. There are comfortable outdoor couches, string lights draping over the space, and an entrance to Taehyung’s personal garden. The manor is surrounded by gardens, but Taehyung (and now Jungkook too) has his own that can only be accessed through his bedroom door. (Well, technically. All those who live on the manor’s grounds could easily bypass the barricade, but they never would.) A path leads off the wooden veranda floor and into the winding gardens full of flowers he lovingly cares for each season – flowers that now have a new purpose in their life, because they are always plucked from the ground by Jungkook or Taehyung to give to the person they love. Taehyung used to work on the garden because it gave him something to do, but now he does it because it serves as the background when he paints his beautiful boy.

Jungkook is sitting on the outdoor couch with an orange cat on his lap as he slowly pets her. It is Jungkook’s favorite cat that lounges around the manor, and she has taken a liking to Jungkook as well. She became his favorite cat even more when Taehyung told him that only around twenty percent of orange cats are female, so he is always telling her how special she is.

“Tae,” Jungkook says.

Taehyung starts to laugh, which pulls out a laughing whine from Jungkook. “Not even a minute has passed,” Taehyung says.

“Yeah, that’s way too long!” Jungkook insists.

“I am almost done with the cat’s face,” Taehyung says. “Just give me a minute so I do not mess it up.”

“That means it’ll be two minutes since you kissed me!”

“I think you will survive,” Taehyung says, focused on the cat’s whiskers.

“I dunno,” Jungkook says dubiously.

“I have faith in you,” Taehyung says. “We have a long life ahead of us. Two minutes is nothing.”

“It is when they’re two minutes that we’re not kissing.”

“I am almost done,” Taehyung says. “I do not want the cat to leave.”

“She told me she wants you to kiss me.”

“Did she?”

“She did.”

“Did she have an accent? Orange cats originate from Egypt.”

“She didn’t have an accent. She didn’t travel here from Egypt, Tae.”

Taehyung shrugs. “You don’t know that.”

“I do. She told me. And she has a French accent, for your information.”

“So she travelled here from France?”

“Yes.”

“Wow.” And Taehyung has successfully distracted Jungkook long enough to finish painting the supposedly-French cat’s face. He sets his paintbrush down and watches Jungkook perk up so much the cat jumps off his lap with a disgruntled noise.

Jungkook yanks Taehyung onto his lap. “Hi,” he says.

“Hello, needy fledgling.” He kisses Jungkook. His hand rests on his cheek, keeping him there as he kisses him again and again, soft, little kisses that they share. He leans back and sees he left a little smidge of blue paint on his cheek; it is often a byproduct from how much Jungkook whines to come be kissed.

“Sorry I make it hard for you to paint…” Jungkook mutters.

“No you’re not,” Taehyung says.

Jungkook smiles. “Yeah, I’m not.”

“My darling boy.” Taehyung says softly, tucking a lock of Jungkook’s hair behind his ear. “Do you know how much I love you?” Jungkook nods, looking pleased with himself, like he really does know how it feels to be loved so deeply. “Good. You are so special to me.” Jungkook kisses him, and he can feel that those things are true for him too just in the soft kiss, but Jungkook tells him too right after.

Taehyung can feel it too when he returns back to his easel and he can feel the way Jungkook is looking at him. He does not bother him though, and he admires in silence as Taehyung paints him.

Taehyung moves to the background details now. Each individual flower petal, the small halo from the lantern lights around the garden, the ivy-covered arch they have to walk beneath when leaving the manor through the garden. All of his friends – and Jungkook himself as well – always voiced their surprise when finding out who was responsible for the upkeep of the manor’s gardens, or even the existence of them at all. Taehyung never thought about it, just mostly grumbled some type of noise and carried on with his gardening.

Now, though, as someone so different from who he once was, he thinks he can see why he enjoyed it so much. He thinks it is because it made him feel less like a monster. As though a monster could not care for something so delicate. A monster could not plant the seeds and nurture them until they grow into something. Could not care for them as they continue to live and flourish. It is as if he was trying, without realizing, to make himself believe that someone so bad could not care for something so delicate as flowers, could not caress their petals, could not pick the weeds from around them so they could continue to grow.

It is the only time his solitude did not feel like abandonment too. He was by himself, but he was not alone. He could feel the soil, the way it crumbled in his fingers. He could feel his rare gentleness with how he patted it down when planting something new. He could hear the summertime insects singing from the bushes and plants he gave them. It soothed his mind and brought him a semblance of peace. A moment where the heaviness of his hollowness or the knowledge of all that he had done did not weigh on him. He was merely a person creating new life and nurturing it to grow in the smallest of ways.

He paints each flower petal with as much care as he does Jungkook’s face. He paints the way the moonlight caresses his flowers as lovingly as he does his mate. There were so many little things all around that were trying to care for him, to comfort him in his long years of abandonment. He hopes he continues to see the ways.

– ☾ –

“Are you nervous?” Jungkook asks. They are in their hotel room, unpacking their suitcases. Jungkook is emptying his socks and underwear into the dresser, then plugging their phone chargers into the wall.

“Yes,” Taehyung says. He notices that his hands are shaking as he hangs up his final shirt in the room’s closet.

“What are you nervous about exactly?”

“I am not entirely certain,” Taehyung says. He starts to unpack his underwear and socks into the dresser drawer beside Jungkook’s – both drawers neat and orderly. Before Taehyung knew that he knew Jungkook before, he thinks he subconsciously anticipated Jungkook to be a messy individual, just because of his young age. He was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case, that Jungkook is as organized and tidy of a person as he is.

“I think I am scared of nothing being there anymore,” Taehyung continues. “The town, our building. I know things will look vastly different, but what if it is not there at all? And what if it is? What if it brings about things I had forgotten – all of the bad things I had forgotten. There are just many emotions that could come up. Many things to be nervous about.” He turns and sits on the edge of the bed, nervously fidgeting with the blanket. “Are you nervous?”

He watches Jungkook in the bathroom doorway, noticing how differently they will look from back then. Jungkook’s hair is longer than before, because with less physical labor than he did back then (and not being affected by temperatures), he does not need to keep it off his neck and his forehead to keep cool. Now it can tickle the tops of his shoulders and have curtainy bangs framing his face. Now his clothes are nicer, and more ‘emo,’ which is a word Taehyung learned when Hoseok was comparing his style to Jungkook’s.

Taehyung is slightly more dressed up than he ever was back then, since he dressed in Jungkook’s clothes that reflected the status they held and what class they resided in. He is wearing black loose trousers and a black t-shirt – the same monochrome color as Jungkook’s outfit, so they can blend into the night if needed for whatever they find in their old village. His hair is rarely off his forehead like it was back then, usually falling into his eyes now instead. Still, he has the same face, the same shallow wrinkles, the same grey in his hair. Jungkook has the same gorgeous face as well; all that is different for either of them are their beauty marks, proof that they have loved one another before.

“A little bit,” Jungkook says. He abandons unpacking their toiletries in the bathroom to sit beside Taehyung and pull him into his arms. “I’m here with you though. If you cry, if you go insane, if you do anything, I’ll be right here. And we’ll be experiencing it together. I always was assuming this wouldn’t entirely be a fun, happy trip. There’s a lot surrounding that time we spent together, and how we’re back here such a long time later. It’ll be emotional, but we’ll be here for each other.”

– ☾ –

They leave their hotel once night has fallen. The fact that there is even a hotel in what was previously the smallest little village shows how different things are, because the village has expanded for this hotel to be considered part of the town it now is. Of course things would be different; it has been over a century, but seeing the proof of it feels strange.

Their hotel is around a thirty minute drive from where they remember their town to be. They could make the walk in a matter of seconds, but they decide to take their time to ease themselves into it. They have been talking about making this trip for a while, but they both took turns backing out on different occasions because of fears and worries they could not withstand yet. Taehyung is starting to feel how he did during those times.

Neither of them talk. They just listen to the sounds of the night as they walk. They can feel each other’s nervousness through the bond, and it feels nice to be assured that they are feeling the same thing together. Taehyung can feel Jungkook trying to calm himself for Taehyung’s sake too. It doesn’t work, but the effort is sweet.

Taehyung does not really recall what this area used to be. Perhaps just forest? He thinks he would recall the surrounding areas of town if they were developed areas, so it must have been part of the forest that surrounded their village. Now it is an extension from the neighborhood their hotel is in. There are paved sidewalks and small businesses that slowly fizzle out more as they continue to walk.

Taehyung’s hands begin to shake again when he starts to recognize his surroundings. Nothing is as rural as it once was, so it took him a moment to realize where they are. The dirt road that once led to and from their village has now been paved. It was once beneath a tunnel of arching overgrown trees, but the tunnel is there no longer, instead they are just trees lining the road now. Taehyung recalls walking this road so many times before, holding his boy’s hand just as he is now. It was once quieter and darker and more immersed in nature, but it is the same. Taehyung remembers all the times Jungkook wanted to walk this far despite working all day, and it resulted in him carrying his sleepy boy home on his back when he whined about having to walk all the way back home. He remembers when Jungkook screamed loud enough to wake the whole village one night because he thought he saw a scorpion in the road, but it was merely an oddly-shaped rock. He remembers when Jungkook told him he wanted to throw a rock down the road while Taehyung was beside him, and Taehyung had to go run and fetch it before it hit the ground far down the way. So many memories on merely this road alone that are beginning to overwhelm him.

Their village comes into view, and Taehyung presses his lips together to hold in a sob.

The grocer who used to have displays of each season’s fruits out front. Taehyung would always swipe one of the things when they walked past on nights Taehyung was able to go out in the dark while the store was still open. He had stolen so many strawberries and apples and pomegranates from the poor man, all while Jungkook tried to slap his hand away and yell at him through whispers to try not to get him in trouble. It never stopped Taehyung, and he suspected Jungkook liked having a snack on their walks. The grocer is no longer there, but Taehyung is happy to find that it is now a flower shop instead.

The drugstore, where Taehyung did openly steal for good reason. Anytime Jungkook got sick, he tried to make his illness seem less bad than it was because the cost of medicine to heal him was not something he could afford when living so modestly. It caused a few genuine fights when Taehyung stole the medicine and prescriptions from the drugstore to force him to take. The fights were cleared up when Taehyung inevitably panicked and cried at the prospect of Jungkook dying, so he took the medicine and accepted the misdeed, but still voiced his unhappiness. (Ironic, really, since now he asks monthly if it is time yet for them to rob another bank.) The drugstore is still the same type of business, just looks more modern and clean than it once did before.

It is the only place, though, that is the same store as it once was. Everything has been turned into something else, while the buildings themselves still stand. Most things in their town could have done with some sprucing up, but it just–they look different. It is almost difficult to attach memories to what he sees now. It is the same, but not the same at all.

They are silent as they walk past it all – what used to be their quiet, rural, simple little town. It is by no means a city now, but it is more populated than it once was; he can tell that even with everybody inside for the night. Some of the buildings have been expanded upward to make apartments, he presumes, and more streets run parallel to the one they are on when it used to be just a simple town square and nothing more.

As they make their way toward the other edge of town, Taehyung can feel Jungkook’s hand begin to shake too.

“Maybe we should turn back,” Jungkook says.

Despite both of them having their moments of anxiousness, it has (not very surprisingly) mostly been Taehyung who allowed it to get the best of him. The tone in Jungkook’s voice now is worse than Taehyung’s had ever been.

Taehyung steps in front of Jungkook to block his view of what lies further ahead. He rests his hands on Jungkook’s cheeks to direct his focus to him, but he did not need to, because Jungkook’s scared gaze is locked on his own.

“If you would like to turn back,” Taehyung says softy, “we can. We can turn right around and run all the way home.”

“But we came all this way,” Jungkook says quietly.

“So?” Taehyung says. “It was a nice little journey we had here. We discovered a vintage movie theatre near us. We saw a cute chalk message on the sidewalk. We watched a turtle crossing an abandoned road. It was not wasted time. Never with you.” Jungkook doesn’t say anything, visibly at war with himself. “What are you scared of, my love?”

“I don’t know,” Jungkook whispers. “I just–I just am.”

“Would you like to go home? We can turn back and go home.” He brushes his thumbs beneath Jungkook’s eyes. “Or we can keep going and be scared together.”

“Are you scared too?”

“I am,” Taehyung whispers with a nod. “How could we be scared when we have each other though? Whatever it is that happens, we will be together. That will always be sure. And if you are by my side, or if I know I will have you at the end of whatever scary thing comes, then it is not really scary at all. It is just an experience I am having with my love.”

They talk for so long that Taehyung fears the sun might rise before they have gotten a chance to decide what to do. It is worth it though, because Jungkook feels ready to continue, and comforting him has comforted himself in the process too. So they take each other’s hands and continue walking.

It is only another minute before their building comes into view. They stop walking again. They just stare.

It is no longer a horse stable, of course. It is no longer as run down as it once was either. As run down-looking as it once was, because it safely shielded them from many different kinds of storms and only occasionally gave out an annoyed creak to show any strain it put on their home.

It is no longer a horse stable, but a bookstore instead. Quite a cozy little one too, from the looks of it. Big windows that used to be an open front, a sign hanging out from the side that occasionally gives a rusted squeak when the wind blows. How strange that something new could have been here so long to squeak and rust already.

It is no longer a stable, but the second floor… their window is still there. The exterior has changed in different ways. The building has been reinforced with brick that already looks aged, and that concept is so confusing and strange to Taehyung. The things that are new to them are already old. The awning for the stable that once jutted out from the wall (and served as a roof he and Jungkook often lied on to look at the stars) is no longer there, so the building is flat instead. Even though there are changes both big and small, their window is still the same, with its wooden shutters that open outward and look over the town. So many days and nights they spent looking out that window. It is where Jungkook first spotted him from, so long ago.

Jungkook rests his head against his shoulder as they gaze up at it. He knows there are memories flitting through Jungkook’s head, the same as his own. Neither of them cry. They just feel that strange, wistful nostalgia together in their chests. Taehyung–he feels so lucky that he could return and not be filled with despair so painful it would be the end of him. He is standing here with his Jungkook, watching the window as if they might see their old selves looking back at them.

He realizes they can, if they just look at each other. They are the same as those younger men so long ago. Taehyung turns his head and kisses Jungkook’s hairline. He rests his cheek against Jungkook’s head while they look at their first home together. They are so different from who they were then, but in all of the important ways, they are the very same.

“Are you sad it’s different?” Jungkook finally asks.

“I don’t think so,” Taehyung says. “It would be too strange if it were the same, or closer to how it all was then. We are different from who we were then. We are the same, but we are just more. And it is the same, but it is more now too. I… I don’t think it would feel good to see it all again now. I do not know why.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Jungkook says. “We changed with time, so if the other parts of our life hadn’t, it’d just feel… I dunno. It’d just feel weird.”

“If our lake is no longer there, though, I will be sad,” Taehyung says.

“Let’s go see then,” Jungkook says, and he pulls him along.

They know the way, because of course they would. They spent so many nights taking this exact route – it is just much less dusty and dirty than before. They have sidewalks to follow now, and no trees to weave through yet. No more burdock bushes whose burrs would stick to Jungkook, making him whine in fear until Taehyung picked them all off of his clothes for him. Fewer weeds to walk through that made Taehyung paranoid that he could feel bugs crawling on him, when it was just grass tickling his ankles.

On the way to the part of the forest that is still there for them to adventure through, Taehyung freezes.

Jungkook looks at him. Taehyung looks around him, trying to get his bearings. He looks back at their building, then around them. “Tae?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung’s voice cracks when he says, quietly, “Right there.” Jungkook follows his gaze. Taehyung can feel when it clicks.

Over a century ago. When Taehyung was waiting for Jungkook to come home after a quick trip to the grocer. When Taehyung was in their kitchen baking something for Jungkook, and he suddenly smelled something. Something he smelled every second of the day and night, but too strongly at that moment. He rushed to the window, and he saw Jungkook just as a man rushed away. Taehyung was out of their home and across the town square before Jungkook could even collapse. He only did because Taehyung collapsed himself while Jungkook was in his arms.

The spot where he held Jungkook as he bled out. He remembers tearing open his shirt, trying to lick the wound closed, trying to hold it shut and stop the bleeding, but it was too wide, too deep to be able to do anything. All he could do was hold him. All he could do was watch, look down at the boy he loved more than words could ever say as his gaze went in and out of focus. His sweet boy, his love, more of him than Taehyung was of himself, looking up at him with those stars still in his eyes. They were twinkling that night too with the tears pooling in them from the pain, from the realization of what was happening. That his life was slipping away, that he was slipping away from Taehyung. Taehyung wonders if he heard him beg. If, as he was dying, he heard Taehyung beg and scream and wail as he held him, as he stared into his eyes praying in desperation and begging in despair and wailing with a sorrow he had never known all while he watched the light drain from his love, his Jungkook. The spot where he had to shut those starry eyes, because they did not close on their own. The spot where the only purpose he had in life was there no longer.

That spot is there no longer either. The place his world fell apart. The place he once stood, then fell to his knees, then was torn apart in despair. It is no longer there, because a tree is in its place. A flourishing, bushy tree, with flowers around it. Some planted, others wildflowers. The very spot Taehyung collapsed is rooted a tall tree. The area Jungkook bled out holds wildflowers around it.

Jungkook’s arms wrap around him. His love, his love, alive and his again. He hugs him. He kisses his neck, and Taehyung holds him back. They stay like that for an hour, Taehyung thinks. Where Taehyung once held Jungkook as he died, Jungkook holds him back. Taehyung never looks away from the tree that had grown so beautifully where tragedy once took place.

Jungkook finally pulls him along, toward their secret spot.

“I killed him, did you know that?” Taehyung asks.

“Huh?” Jungkook says, eyes wide. “Who?”

“The man who stabbed you. I found him and I killed him.”

“Oh,” Jungkook says. “Do I want to know about it?”

“Probably not,” Taehyung says. It was not a simple affair. It was slow, so slow. The tearing of each and every limb, one by one. Each finger pulled off, or snapped in half. Healing the wound closed so he did not bleed out and would not die of blood loss before he was finished. Waiting however long it took for him to wake up when he passed out from the pain. It lasted weeks, he thinks, maybe a month. Slowly taking his time until there was nothing left to do but end his suffering – a mercy Taehyung would never be afforded until a century passed.

He turns away from the memories and looks around him again.

He is relieved to find that still, there is not a path leading to the lake. There was not back then, and there still is not one now, despite their village being paved when it was not before. He and Jungkook began to create one on their own because of how often they visited the lake, but whatever was once there has long since become overgrown. It makes it feel like it has remained a secret, even though he knows that is most likely not possible.

Hoping and wishing and holding his breath, Taehyung walks through the overgrown grass with Jungkook and disappears through the trees. He doesn’t see why it would not be there anymore. It would be a lot of effort to fill in a whole lake, even if it wasn’t a very big one. Well, global warming is a thing too, he supposes, so that could have dried it out. And–

They emerge from the forest, a shorter walk than it once took since much of it had been torn down, and he is brought back to over a century ago. Standing right here, looking out over the hidden lake with the moon and stars reflected in the surface, the ripples of the water making it shimmer. So many nights spent here with his Jungkook, when they would escape from their sleeping town and go somewhere it felt like only the two of them knew. Nights of lying in the grass, of wading into the water. It is the only thing about their old home that remains unchanged. Pebbles are scattered around the outer edges of the lake, and Taehyung remembers picking through them so often to find perfect rocks for skipping. The large boulder where they would drape their towels they brought when they knew they wanted to swim.

Jungkook lets go of his hand to walk to a tree beside him. Taehyung remembers that tree too. He sees Jungkook study the bark, then his eyebrows furrow. Then Jungkook looks up, because of course it has grown since the time they carved into it. Taehyung walks over. Much higher up from where he stood before, he sees carved: JK + TH with a heart around it. Proof that they have lived before, if he could ever doubt it. They were here. They lived here. They loved here. And they are here again. He remembers Jungkook apologizing to the tree as he carved into it. He remembers the little tiff they got into (Taehyung and Jungkook, not Jungkook in the tree) because Taehyung would not let him start unless Jungkook put his initials first – something silly that he insisted on for no real reason. He remembers Jungkook asking to think of a way to honor the tree because he felt so bad for the way he might have hurt it, so they gathered wildflowers to place in front of it. His sweet boy. Taehyung has no doubt he would do the same now.

Taehyung turns Jungkook around. He crowds into him, his hands on his hips, thumbs snaking beneath his shirt to brush against his bare skin. With his back pressed against the tree, Taehyung kisses him. They have been like this so many times that he wonders if there is an indent in the shape of Jungkook’s body here to show their mark too because of how long he has spent leaning back against the tree as Taehyung kisses him.

“I loved you so much,” Taehyung whispers against his lips. “I loved you so dearly, Jungkook. So passionately that I died with you until you brought me back with you. I loved you so much. I never stopped, darling. I will never stop.”

“Neither will I, sire,” Jungkook whispers. They always whispered here because it is a secret, even though their laughter could never be contained and would have given them away if anyone were around to hear.

Taehyung kisses him. He holds onto the sides of Jungkook’s neck and tilts his head just the way he wants him. He parts his lips with his tongue and licks into his mouth just the way he wants too. Jungkook lets him. He has always let him. And when Jungkook takes over the kiss, Taehyung lets him, because Taehyung has always let Jungkook do anything he wants with him too. Their breath is hot in the hot summer night. Their quiet moans are joined by the crickets and cicadas that have always sung here, and the rustling of leaves that are on the very same branches that have once looked over them, hiding them from anyone who might see.

Taehyung presses the fronts of their bodies together as he kisses his cheek, his jaw, down to his neck. He does not need to open his eyes to know that there are beauty marks in each of those places.

He buries his fangs in his neck and begins to drink from him. He remembers all of the times they have been just like this too. All of the times his selfless, sweet Jungkook allowed him to feed from him. He drinks his blood as he strokes his cheek, listening to his pleased sighs. Taehyung licks the wounds closed, and he kisses Jungkook so he will taste them, how their combined blood is what flows through their veins.

“My Jungkook,” Taehyung says between one kiss and the next. “My love.” Another. “My love. My Jungkook. My love.” Jungkook kisses him like the boy he was and the boy he still is. Taehyung kisses him just the same.

“Sire,” Jungkook sighs against his lips. Jungkook was not his fledgling the last time they were here. That same warmth was in their chests though. The bond, it was always there, in its own way. The feeling of warmth and wholeness they gave each other was enough to make it something new when Jungkook returned, something stronger, something that will not be taken because neither of them will either. “Tae. Baby.”

Taehyung presses closer as he kisses him deeper. Their chests touch, the growing bulges hidden away. Jungkook’s hands go to his hips and he pulls him closer, guiding him to grind their covered cocks together. So many more memories flit through their heads, nights just like this. Almost a tradition of sorts, like kissing at the peek of the bridge in the park every time they pass over it. So many hidden nights of their bodies pressed together, cocks pressed between them as they moan for each other.

“You are so loved,” Taehyung whispers to Jungkook. Taehyung never knew he was capable of a love so real. So ardent and true. He did not think he was good enough for it, to feel something so pure.

Jungkook’s fangs sink into his neck, and Taehyung feels his cock drip as he feeds his fledgling. He feels Jungkook’s purr against his chest as he feeds from his life source, as he is kept alive because of his sire. Taehyung presses harder, dragging their cocks together in earnest. There is a slight discomfort from the layers of fabric, but the yearned-for closeness being denied from them is what makes it feel so good, forbidding themselves of a closer touch.

Jungkook kisses him deeply, messily, softly. Taehyung moans from the taste, the threat of his fangs he does not pull back. “I love you,” Taehyung whimpers. “I l-love you. I needed you. I–I–you–I was lost without you, darling. I needed you. I need you.”

“I’m here, Tae,” Jungkook says. He kisses him more desperately, moving his hips now too. He spins them around, presses Taehyung against their tree, doing what he has always done, taking over when Taehyung is overcome with emotion. “I’m here, always. I need you too.”

“I need you to need me,” Taehyung says. “I want you to need me and nobody else.”

“Only you,” Jungkook says. “Only you, sire. Baby. My baby.” He looks into his sire’s eyes so deeply, so desperately. “Still my baby. Still my baby Tae. You’ve always been my baby.”

Taehyung whimpers and nods. He is his baby. His head falls back against the tree. Jungkook kisses his neck, licks his skin, traces the lines of his scars with his tongue. Taehyung comes feeling so loved. He comes from the gentle caress along the gashes in his neck. His body shudders and he looks to the sky, the moonlight that falls through the leaves. The same moon and the same tree branches as all those years ago. The same exact view he has has seen so many times when he comes undone from his sweet boy’s kisses. He is still here. Their love is still here. His love is here, clinging to him as he comes too.

Taehyung’s arms wrap around him. He nuzzles into Jungkook’s neck and is nuzzled in return. Whispers that he loves Jungkook and is told he is loved in return.

When they feel strong enough, they undress. They giggle at their grimaces from the feeling of drying cum on their cocks. A feeling so familiar during their time spent here too. They splash into the water. It is the same as all those years ago. They are the same, they just know tragedy they wish they did not have to know. More of the pain is healed because they came here though. It bleeds off of them into their lake, floats away in the water surrounding them for the sun to bring up to the clouds when they leave to escape its light. They have enough light between the two of them.

Jungkook clings to him like an octopus. Taehyung makes the same joke he always has. “Octopuses are in the ocean! Why is there one in this lake?” Jungkook laughs like he always has. The leaves on the trees rustle with the warm breeze, as if the trees are laughing at a joke they have not heard in so long.

Submerged up to their shoulders, they hold one another.

“It is easier to be here than I thought it would be,” Taehyung says. “I thought it would be hard. Too emotional. It does feel strange, but it is easy. It feels just like returning to visit somewhere we used to live, same as anybody else sometimes does. It does not feel so heavy.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” Jungkook says. Jungkook lets go of him, pulling an oof from Taehyung as he uses him as a wall kick off of and glides across the water on his back before doing a backflip beneath the surface and emerging once again. “You must have been so bored without me.”

Taehyung laughs, loud and surprised. “You are not wrong, little fledgling.” He was bored, if he were to put it so simply.

“Do you remember that one time when I had to stay away for a weekend to help people with horses they were taking on a trip?”

Taehyung groans up to the sky. “Don’t remind me,” he says. The grueling days he spent alone, gazing out the window, waiting for his love to return like he had been gone for months, as if he were fighting in a war while his lover waited for him at home. Taehyung knows that if Jungkook were to go on a trip now, he would be much more pathetic than even then – and that is saying a lot. In fact, he probably would not even allow it and insist on accompanying him to wherever he is going.

The rest of the night is spent with “do you remember” lingering in the air to be plucked when they are ready to say it again. Endless memories pass between the two of them, endless laughter at the silly life they lived, and how that hasn’t changed. They talk until the sun comes up.

They return the next night, and the one after that, until they leave their old home and return to the one that has become where they can rest knowing no tragic memories will ever join them.

– ☾ –

Taehyung stumbles when he walks out onto their back porch, erupting into giggles because of the way Jungkook snorts. He stumbles again when Jungkook loses his balance not even a second after making fun of him. He runs into his back, and Taehyung just barely catches them on the railing before they fall. They hold each other up as they laugh, because they have not stopped laughing for an hour.

“J-Jungkook-ah, this isn’t going to work if they can hear you!”

“Stop making me laugh then!”

“‘m not even doing anything!” They are drunk off of each other’s venom, so it doesn’t take much to send them reeling in more ways than one. Taehyung has never been drunk off of venom before. He has experienced it briefly during a couple of times he and Jungkook have made love and allowed themselves to get carried away, but he hasn’t allowed venom to intoxicate him recreationally before.

And it is quite fun. They cannot get drunk from alcohol, but they have another way. And it is even more fun, because they are really drunk off of each other. It has been so fun. It has been a night of giggles and laughter and clumsiness. Jungkook makes him feel so young.

Jungkook, full of energy and running back and forth down the manor’s long hallway, said, “We sh’ld go ding dong ditch th’others!” while speeding past him on one lap.

Taehyung stared at him, his love soft around the edges with the venom in his bloodstream, making him look even more like the ethereal angel he is. “You jus said nonsense words.”

It brought about another fit of giggles. “No! S’when you go n ring someone’s doorbell an run ‘way!”

“Why would we do th’t?”

“Because it's funny! S’a prank everyone always does as kids.”

So now they find themselves sneaking across the manor’s property, over to Jimin, Yoongi, and Hoseok’s home. Jungkook leans over and smooches his cheek, making it as wet and messy as he seemingly can. Taehyung pushes him away with a fake noise of disgust, but neither of them are particularly steady on their feet at the moment. Jungkook goes stumbling and takes Taehyung with him. They fall into the grass amongst the wildflowers, beneath the light of the moon and the twinkling stars, trying to shush each other so their friends won’t hear.

Taehyung straddles Jungkook and kisses his lips as wet and messy as Jungkook did his cheek, which makes Jungkook whine as he weakly tries to push him off. Jungkook has more than enough strength to actually do so, so Taehyung knows he secretly likes it.

He finally stands and pulls Jungkook up with him, and they sneak the rest of the way over. Jungkook stays as close to him as the humid air of the summer night is, sticking to him just the same. They tiptoe up to their friends’ front door, definitely making more noise than a normally-walking person does. They assure themselves that the crickets and cicadas and toads in the forest cover it for them, even though their giggles are conspicuous enough to have been heard when they were still back on their porch.

“Do it,” Jungkook whispers, but it is not very quiet. Taehyung thinks he can see one of his friends peer out the window, but he cannot tell who. He rings the doorbell, and he and Jungkook quickly run away. They do it at only a human pace, and not a very fast one either. They run to the fountain that connects their three houses, and they duck behind it, peeking over the edge. Taehyung notices that there are flower petals floating atop the water.

They press their lips together to keep in their laughter as they watch Jimin open the door and look out. “Huh!” Jimin says loudly, playing up his confusion as if he were humoring children. “That is so strange! The doorbell rang but no one is there!”

Jungkook falls onto his back and lets his laughter free while Taehyung falls over and rests his head on the edge of the fountain, tears trickling from his eyes as he cracks up.

Jungkook sits up and yells, “Come out and play!”

Taehyung hears Jimin say to his boyfriends, “I’m pretty sure the two of them are drunk.”

“C’mon, let’s do the others,” Jungkook whispers to him as he tugs on his shirt.

He makes Jungkook pull him up without doing any of the work to help. Jungkook does it so strongly without meaning to that it sends Taehyung a few feet up into the air with a scream, but Jungkook easily catches him. He spins him around and kisses him, then he makes them both tumble to the ground again, because they are in no state to be able to withstand any spinning.

They eventually sneak over to Seokjin and Namjoon’s house. Jungkook does the honors of ringing the doorbell this time, but before they even get the chance to turn and run, the door is yanked open. Jungkook screams at the suddenness, then he screams again as he is immediately chased by Seokjin. Taehyung watches Jungkook run very clumsily around the manor’s meadow as Seokjin chases him. Seokjin could easily catch him, especially since they are running at human speeds, but Seokjin doesn’t catch him so Jungkook keeps screaming and feeling like he is being chased.

“Good evening,” Namjoon says with a laugh when he appears at his side.

“H’llo,” Taehyung says. Namjoon raises an eyebrow, then he realizes he is not exactly sober. Then he smiles. Taehyung loves seeing his friends smile at him. He likes that they are happy around him, whether it is because of him or not.

“Tae!” Jungkook shouts when he runs past him. “Save me!” Then Jungkook seems to remember something he is able to do that he always cheats with when in situations like this, and he turns into a bat. He has never been a bat in this state of intoxication though, so as soon as he has shifted, he promptly falls onto the ground with a plop.

Taehyung rushes over to him, laughing the whole way because he can tell Jungkook is not hurt by the way he is incessantly squeaking; he is only whining. “Oh, my baby bat,” Taehyung laughs. He holds out his hand to allow Jungkook to crawl onto it, his tummy dragging across the grass, then his palm.

“That’s what you get for cheating!” Seokjin says. It brings about more squeaking as he argues back.

Taehyung giggles as he kisses the tip of Jungkook’s nose, feeling Jungkook’s purrs against his palm. Jungkook situates himself so he is looking off the edge of Taehyung’s hand, then he leaps. He spreads his wings out, and he flaps them. He flies more clumsily than Taehyung has ever seen, even when he did not know how to truly fly yet – looking like what a drunk bat would probably look like. Jungkook sees that this clearly is not going to work, so he shifts back to Taehyung’s little vampire, pouting. It immediately goes away when his sire kisses his pout again and again.

They are called over by their friends, and everything feels complete. The warm summer night, the seven of them together. Talking, laughing, playing. Their family, happy and complete. Jungkook was a missing piece, and Taehyung was too. Taehyung was here all along, but he wasn’t, really. He was just an outline of a person, a shadow – there, but not truly. Not as a person, not as who he is when he is real.

Now he is here. He is here, and he is himself, because Jungkook is here too, and he is a part of him. Without Jungkook, he is not sure who he is. He was not enough without him to be able to find out. And he will never have to.

“Oh yeah?” Taehyung says, an eyebrow raised at Jungkook who is talking a big talk.

“Yeah,” Jungkook says with a devilish, mischievous look on his face as he goads him like he has been for the past minute. “I was new back then. I could beat you easily now.”

“Easily, huh?” Taehyung says. Jungkook thinking he could beat him in a wrestling match at all is something, but easily! He is quite mistaken, and Taehyung will easily be able to prove it. Jungkook sees his age as a weakness rather than the strength and advantage that it is. The rest of their friends try to goad him on as well. “Come on, little fledgling,” Taehyung says, smirking in return. “Let’s see.”

Jungkook giggles menacingly as he rushes over, away from their friends so they have enough room to tumble around. Taehyung calmly joins him, trying not to show his gleeful anticipation, even though he knows Jungkook can feel it through the bond.

Taehyung stands across from him, quite a ways away but crossable in a second. He stands calmly as if he is observing a painting in a museum. Jungkook takes a fighting stance, already looking for weak spots.

“Well, come on, little fledgling,” Taehyung says. The pet name is always steeped in intense fondness. It still is now, but there is a dash of condescension to it this time too.

Before the final word is out, Jungkook has crossed the distance and slams into him. With his shoulder against his stomach, he runs, sending his heels tearing through the grass in two clear lines. It is the same move he started with the last time they fought like this.

Even as he is run back several feet, Taehyung does not stumble or fall. He allows Jungkook to do it until he tires and loses his grip on him. Once he does, a mere couple of seconds later, Taehyung reaches over him and holds onto his hips. He effortlessly rolls forward over his shoulders and down his back so he is now behind Jungkook in a very spy-like move that Jungkook was clearly not expecting by the strange, adorable noise he makes. Another one comes when Taehyung turns Jungkook around and kisses his lips. “You will have to try harder, darling,” he says. He kisses him again, then he takes off running.

He is clumsier than usual, but Jungkook is too. He decides to just be on the defensive this whole time, rather than trying to wrestle Jungkook down himself. He could do so pretty easily, but he knows Jungkook likes the fight. He does too, even beyond his love for hearing Jungkook happily, excitedly giggle that someone is able to match his endurance and resolve and stamina and gusto.

He hears Jungkook behind him, his footsteps as he runs through the grass. Right when he is about to get his arms around him, Taehyung ducks out of his way. Jungkook’s arms close around air. He almost falls to the ground, but Taehyung turns and catches him like the gentleman that he is before he runs out of his reach again. He hears their friends yelling at them, taking teams and supporting their allies while teasing and booing their opponents.

He is focused on yelling back at Jimin, so he is taken off guard. Jungkook swipes at his ankles and sends him on the ground with a yell. Jungkook pounces, straddling him and holding him down. Taehyung would normally succumb because he wants the kisses Jungkook will cover him in, but he can see the cockiness his fledgling is just about to let free, and he will not allow it.

He turns them over so Jungkook is on his back. Taking advantage of how disoriented he is from their drunkenness, Taehyung presses his forearm against his chest, intending on keeping him down long enough to be called as the victor.

Jungkook is not giving up without a fight though, and he sits up quickly enough that it sends Taehyung onto his back. He straddles him again, and he leans down to kiss him. He does it so, so softly, but Taehyung knows his angle. His hands glide up his chest before settling on his shoulders. Taehyung feels the increasing pressure as he kisses him so sweetly, clearly trying to take advantage of his weakness for being kissed so tenderly.

And while Taehyung wants to indulge in it, and is even falling for the ploy because his head always gets cloudy when he is treated so softly, he does not want Jungkook to be able to gloat – which he will do for ages if he manages to beat his sire. Maybe one day Jungkook will beat him, but if he does, it will because he truly has, not because Taehyung gave in.

Taehyung shoves Jungkook back as gently as he is able to when shoving someone, and Jungkook makes an unhappy sound that his dirty tactic did not work. He growls, such a playful, silly sound that Taehyung has not heard from him in a very long time, and not in a situation like this. Taehyung takes off running again, crossing the length of the meadow faster than Jungkook is able to. Jungkook really underestimates him. It becomes clearer to him when he hears his fledgling whine like the young little vampire he is.

“C’mon, little Jungkookie, I know you can catch up!” Taehyung shouts, trying to rile him up.

And he is successful, because his competitive fledgling makes it to him in no time. Jungkook always tries to win with brute force without cunning tactics though, and force alone is no match for Taehyung’s strength, not to mention the smarts he has that Jungkook does not bother with. He ducks out of Jungkook’s way, then he does so again when Jungkook easily rights himself.

He is starting to feel a little tired though, and getting increasingly clumsier too. And he wants to kiss his little fledgling. So he turns on Jungkook and sends him onto his back with ease that Jungkook was not expecting. Taehyung gets on top of him and holds him down. Jungkook fights and shoves and thrashes and squirms and does everything he can to get Taehyung off of him. When he sees it is a lost cause, he begins to whine because he knows he lost. “No fair!” he says.

“What’s no fair?!” Taehyung laughs. “I won! Perhaps you should think twice before thinking I am old and easy to beat.” He flicks Jungkook’s forehead, pulling another whine out of him, and rolls onto his back beside Jungkook.

Jungkook rolls over onto him though and straddles him. He finally kisses him again, without using it as a motive to win. He kisses him softly because he wants to, because he loves him, even when he’s pouty. There is grass in his hair and dirt on his clothes and Taehyung is sure he is the same, and they kiss blending right in with the wildflowers that surround them.

Their friends come to join them, so Jungkook rolls off of him. He springs up, which causes Hoseok to scream out of surprise. He turns and runs because he often does that when scared, and it brings about a chase between the two of them.

Jimin pulls him up to his feet and yanks him into his arms in a tight hug. Then another pair of arms wrap around him – both because Hoseok is clinging to him as if he is a safe spot and safe from Jungkook’s attack, and because he wants to hug him. Jungkook’s arms come next, then Yoongi’s. Seokjin and Namjoon follow, then he is the center of a group hug with his family around him, hugging him tight, all of them telling each other that they love them, hugging long enough that others begin to whine and try to wiggle out of it and escape.

Taehyung feels loved. He feels so loved. It is such a warm summer night, and he feels loved, and he loves.

He thinks about how next season will be a year since he found Jungkook again. It will be a year since he found himself again. Until the others could find him.

It is such a lovely night. His friends laugh and yell and chase and play and hug and wrestle and act like children. It is so different from how it was last summer. And the summer before that, and a decade before that, a century too. It is so different from how he thought his life could ever be again.

And it is better than it was when he had Jungkook all those years ago.

He has a family now.

Jungkook was his family back then, but he did not understand what the word truly meant before he found the others. Or before the others found him, really. He has Jungkook, and he has a family too. He has others who love him, others he loves. And Jungkook has all of them too.

Taehyung looks at the sky. The twinkling stars, the half moon shining a soft yellow. He hears the warm breeze because of the way it soars through the forest, through the leaves, through the wildflowers sprinkled throughout their meadow like beauty marks. He spots fireflies toward the garden, floating lazily, illuminating like stars that have come to visit them as they watch the strange beings around them play. He sees Jungkook and Namjoon wrestling, because Jungkook seems to be trying to prove that he can beat an older vampire, and Namjoon (like all of the others) indulges him. He sees Seokjin and Jimin watching them and laughing. He sees Hoseok and Yoongi walking through the garden, hand in hand. He watches Yoongi bring their joined hands to his lips to kiss Hoseok’s, then he watches Jimin run over to kiss them both before returning to Seokjin to cheer for Jungkook and boo Namjoon, while Seokjin does the opposite.

Taehyung is so happy. He has never been happier. He meets Jungkook’s eyes across the meadow for just a moment, and he can tell by the look in his gaze and the feeling in his chest that Jungkook feels the same.