Archive of Our Own

“Are you not tired of being alone?”

Yuto hears his brother, but doesn’t really comprehend it. He’s never been alone, or at least he can barely remember those days - the days before his little brother, Kino. They have each other and they watch over the humans, help them when they need it in exchange for things they end up gifting them right back when they aren’t looking. They need for only one thing, and the humans give them that too when they ask of it - willingly. The pretty young men and women fawn at their feet, presenting their necks, begging for them to sink their teeth in. Yuto doesn’t get it, and Kino doesn’t like it. They only feed when they need to, making sure to never hurt a soul and giving them rewards in turn.

Yuto and Kino have all the time in the world on their hands, watching as the humans grow and learn to make civilizations, trade, and literature that Yuto enjoys looking at when he gets the chance. Kino wanders the earth, looking for something he’s not sure of himself.

“I am not alone. I have you.” He finally tells him one day, maybe hoping he’ll stay with him this time. Kino smiles at him, but there’s something sad there. Yuto doesn’t know how to help. The next day he can’t find him anywhere, and he knows he's gone looking again.

They start seeing them a few hundred years later, the villages stained with spilled blood and lifeless corpses - savage creatures latched onto the necks of those still alive and screaming as they’re torn apart. Kino looks between the humans dying, the creatures wreaking havoc, and his brother’s terror filled eyes.

“We have to help them!” Kino yells, tearing one of the new creatures in half with his bare hands and collecting the poor teenage girl in his arms - putting her to sleep with a spell so she doesn’t feel the pain anymore, a sleep he knows she won’t ever wake from. “Where are they from?”

Yuto stands in the middle of the hut, watches as more of them run around tearing more people apart unmoving. He smells something, someone - someone like them on these creatures. It terrifies him.

One lunges for Kino, and the other is too surprised to react in time so it knocks him over - biting in and drinking deep. Kino screams, tries to fight but seems to go weak. Yuto expects him to be able to get up, waits for it, nothing has ever been a threat to them. They’ve never been attacked like they watched the humans do to each other. Now, Yuto watches as his brother’s eyes go out of focus - his hands falling limp at his sides as the creature tears his neck apart. It takes several moments for Yuto to act, to grab the thing off his body and tear it to shreds with his own teeth - collect his brother in his arms and run back to their dwelling. His brother doesn’t open his eyes, and Yuto feels like everything is crumbling around him. He lays him on the stone slab the humans use to give them offerings, throwing gold and clothing out of the way, and watches Kino’s own blood run thick from his wound.

“Kino. Wake up.” He pleads, voice shaking. He can’t understand what’s happening. “Kino, please. I - I don’t know what to do. How do I help?” There’s no answer. Yuto beats his fists against the slab, crushing it below him.

He does the only thing he can think of and runs back to the village, takes care of any of the creatures still there and goes to find any humans left. They cower from him, eyes wide - hiding their children. Yuto can’t be bothered to care, not when his own brother isn’t waking up.

“I need blood.” His voice comes out in gasps, the panic deep in his chest.

“Monster!” A man yells at him. “Leave us alone.” A woman screams back.

“Anyone!” Yuto’s fangs bare themselves, his eyes glowing. Several men come at him with pitchforks, he stares at them in disbelief. “After all we have given you!”

“Look at what you did to us, you monster! Get away!” A man sinks the tongs into Yuto’s arm, but he barely flinches. He doesn’t have time to argue . He grabs the man by his neck, takes him with him kicking and screaming, pleading for his life but Yuto can barely think past the man lying inside their home - his brother. The only one he has. He throws the man down, who gets on his knees and begs once more. It falls upon deaf ears, Yuto takes a golden cup he finds in the pile of offerings and puts it under his throat - slits it with one finger and lets the blood collect inside. He puts the cup to Kino’s mouth, opens his lips and pours the blood down his throat but the man doesn’t budge. Yuto shakes him by the edges of his robes, screaming.

“ Kino! ” He cries, tears pouring down his face, thinking in his head that he would do anything. He can’t be without his brother. He can’t even imagine it. The days he leaves, Yuto only waits for his return. Always together. It’s supposed to be forever, so he has to wake up. He has to.

Yuto goes to the village, bringing back new victims all night - pouring their blood down his brother’s throat but no matter how many cups he can collect Kino doesn’t wake. When he goes once more, the village is gone - everything raided and taken. No villagers anywhere in sight. Yuto combs the entire area, but not a single soul is around. He returns to his brother’s side, wracked with sobs as he sinks with his back against the slab his brother has slept on for far too long already. Yuto turns, looks at his brother’s body and the stains on his ravaged neck and realizes that Kino has blood just like the humans. Yuto looks at his own wrists, making a decision. He cuts himself open and puts the cut directly above Kino’s open lips, digs it open deeper so the blood pours down. He collapses, weak and dizzy, over his brother’s chest - bloodying his robes and hands grabbing onto him. Yuto continues to cry, feeling like he might lose consciousness, when he feels the body under him move.

“Brother?” Kino’s voice sounds loud to Yuto, for the quiet soft tone he uses when he wakes, and the other gathers the younger into his arms. Hand cradling his neck, hands digging into his back.

“Do not dare leave me.”  Yuto sobs into his brother’s shoulder. “Do not leave me here alone.”

“What happened?” Kino doesn’t remember anything but the screaming, the blood, the townspeople dead - pieces of them scattered inside their own homes. “What - what are those things?”

“Did you smell it too?” Yuto’s voice is gruff, he’s still grabbing Kino by his face - looking him over to make sure everything is fine. His neck shows sinew and muscle, the blood spread all over, but he can see it start to heal.

“Yes...” Kino thinks to himself, “there is someone else.” They look into each other’s eyes. “Someone like us.”

It’s the first time Yuto realizes what Kino meant by ‘alone’. They’ve always had each other, but they’ve always been alone together. No one else like them in the world around them, and he guesses that what Kino has been looking for is something to show them they’re not. Now the signs are here, and they’re not pleasant. They wonder what kind of person the other vampire could be, to create such monsters.

“Do not leave my side.” Yuto can’t lose Kino.

“The village!” Kino gets up, staggering as his wounds still stand to heal, and then he looks at the corpses around them. Men, women, children strewn around the cave - all with throats slit. The look he gives Yuto reminds him of the village people when he came to take what he had to. “W-what have you done? Yuto!” He grabs his brother’s arm. “Tell me this was not you.” Yuto can’t meet his eyes. He doesn’t regret it. He’d do anything for Kino, anything . Kino’s lips tremble, he runs out of the cave towards the village. Yuto sits on the slab, head in his hands. He knows Kino won’t find anyone, not anymore.

Kino doesn’t come back for a long time. Yuto buries all the wasted townspeople by their homes, leaving the offerings they gave on their graves, and mourns for them and for the peace he never wanted to break. He finds out what it really feels like to be alone, no word from his brother, no one around him at all. It’s the first time Yuto wishes he could have a grave of his own.

When Kino returns, he’s not alone. He can smell the shorter man, smell that he’s like them though there is a difference in all their scents. Kino smells like comfort and home, while the man next to him smells of loneliness and something slightly sour. He feels protective, but isn’t sure how Kino feels about him yet - after that night. He walks slowly towards the pair, cautious, but Kino runs to his arms.

“I missed you.” He whispers, and Yuto lets himself relax, says it back and a broken ‘I am sorry’. Kino takes the new man’s hand and introduces him to Yuto with a smile, saying he’s made a friend . The new man is called Hui, his hair is long and gets in his eyes but when Yuto can see them - they’re always on Kino. The way Hui watches Kino leaves Yuto feeling strange, his stomach turning, the eyes that run over his brother look like something they’ve never seen. He doesn’t know what it is, but Kino doesn’t look at Hui the same and Yuto feels something foreboding about that. “Hui, I think you should tell my brother about it.” Yuto doesn’t miss the way Hui seems to melt at Kino’s smile, and his stomach twists again.

“Tell me what?” Hui laughs, hand on his neck nervously.

“Well, I - .” Yuto looks at him curiously, wishing Kino wouldn’t stand so close. They have the whole cave, what’s the point anyway? Hui sighs. “I made the creatures you saw in your town.”

“You mean the ones that nearly killed him?” Yuto hisses, head nodding in Kino’s direction.

“Brother, it is not as if he knew.” Kino argues.

“Did he not?”

“I did not.” Hui defends. “I - I tried something, a woman approached me one day asking if it would be possible to drink my blood instead. She swore it would give her healing properties.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I did not! At first.” Yuto flinches, the tone Hui uses is somber. There’s a lot more to the story. “She kept coming, every day. We grew close.” Hui glances at Kino, Yuto holds back a snarl as Kino seems to give him an encouraging look. “Until one day, her brother came to me instead. She was dead, and he pleaded for me to grant her wish - that if it didn’t work, then that was that but if it did then he could have his sister again.” He pauses, gives a look of contempt to Yuto. “I am not a monster, I agreed.”

“You created monsters.” Yuto scoffs. The other vampire snarls at him, Kino holding him back sternly.

“Do not fight.” Kino gets in between.

“You barely know this man, Kino.”

“He knows me more than you do.” Yuto is hurt, his heart pained at the words. They’ve been together for so long, how could Yuto not know everything about Kino? He’s done everything for them. He drops it, doesn’t want to get into it when there’s more important things to talk about.

“It is not as though you are innocent.” Hui laughs at Yuto. Kino looks guilty, and it occurs to Yuto that he must have told Hui why he left for so long. What Yuto has done is no different from the monsters that Hui created and Yuto grows quiet unable to defend himself when it’s the truth. “I did not know what it would do anyway. When I gave her my blood, it didn’t bring her back to life. It just made her - like me.” Kino looks interested in that. “Except when she woke up, her hunger was worse than anything I have ever experienced and I could not help her brother in time, she tore him to shreds with her teeth. Drained him dry.” Hui walks into their cave like it’s his home now. Yuto fears Kino will say it is. He sits on the slab that still holds Kino’s blood stains, mulling his thoughts. “I thought maybe if she fed enough, it would be okay.”

“So how many did you let her slaughter before you killed her?” Yuto groans.

“I have not killed her.”

Yuto and Kino stare at him in disbelief.

“Why?” Kino yells. He’s always had a soft spot for the humans, caring for them like children even in their oldest age. Yuto’s never minded them either, but now - things are different.

“Because I was tired of being alone!” Hui yells back in frustration. “I thought if she could be like me, even if it takes a while, then I would let as many of them die as needed.”

“Well look how well that worked out.”

“I did not know the secret yet.” Hui smiles to himself.

“What secret?” Kino walks up to him, Yuto is ready to tear Hui’s arm off when he reaches out and touches Kino’s wrist.

“Here.” He puts his lips to it. Kino doesn’t move away. “ Our blood. That is what they need.”

“You let her drink from you?” Kino’s lips are parted, his eyes elsewhere, Yuto knows that look. It’s the look Kino gets when he’s thinking really hard, about things Yuto usually ends up not liking - such as when Kino tried to get them to drink from only animals and they nearly starved, and when he first said he was leaving to find something. Hui nods, eyes on Kino but his lips still on the younger’s wrist.

“I lost consciousness but when I woke up, she was next to me - coherent and crying.”

“So you made more?” Yuto questions, remembering seeing at least four other creatures.

“I did. She asked me to turn her brother, but there was nothing I could do. They are not exactly like us, they are in an in between. Something still human about them. Her brother was past the point he could heal.”

“Why did you make more? Wasn’t she enough?”

Kino looks at Yuto, frowning. Yuto hates that he knows Kino agrees with Hui more, that Hui knows more about Kino’s feelings right now than him - hates the vampire’s damn lips on his brother’s wrist. He doesn't know why Kino isn’t moving .

“Humans, they make families and friends. They make communities.” Hui looks into Kino’s eyes again. “I want that too.”

“Me too.” Yuto hears Kino whisper.

“We are not humans!” Yuto argues.

“Are you not tired of being alone?” Kino says that same question from years ago, right before he started looking for - for what he’s found in Hui. Belonging. Yuto shakes his head, doesn’t get it. Kino is all he needs.

“I am not alone.”

“You are.” Kino finally walks away from Hui, walks up to Yuto who scrunches his nose in disgust when he smells him, him on his brother. “What are you going to do if I die, brother?” Kino’s eyes are sadder than he’s ever seen but Yuto is more focused on Hui’s smell being on his brother.

“Why do you smell like him?” Yuto snarls. He sees Hui’s smile, bragging and mean, behind Kino’s form. “What the fuck did you do?”

“I let him drink from me.” Hui says, like it’s nothing at all. It makes Yuto sick. He looks at his brother who doesn’t deny it.

“Why?”

“I wanted to see something.” Kino mumbles. “You have let me drink from you.”

“That was to save you!”

“Did you know? Did you feel it?” Hui continues, his tone dark.

“What are you talking about , you crazy bat?” Yuto’s at his throat, fangs out - eyes glowing. Rage. Yuto can’t hide his rage, the black fog circling around him. “Do it.” Hui juts his neck out, meeting Yuto’s eyes in challenge.

“Brother!” Kino yells, Yuto can barely hear inside the dense fog that covers him and the other vampire.

“What do you want with my brother?” He says for only Hui to hear, and wants to tear him apart when Hui grins back with his fangs.

“I just want him.” He laughs, and Yuto sinks his teeth in. Hui doesn’t make a sound or fight it, lets him drink from him. Yuto hates it. He hates who he’s become lately. He pushes him away, watching as the man weakens. “Do you get it?”

“Do not mess with me.” Yuto yells. He feels Kino’s hand on his wrist, pulling him back, grounding him again.

“We can only die from each other.” Hui finalizes. Yuto didn’t have to hear it. He felt it, felt himself dying little by little when giving his blood to Kino that night. He didn’t care. All he cared about is Kino, it’s still the same now. Then Yuto remembers that terrible night, when Kino wouldn’t wake up.

“You are lying.” He seethes.

“I am not.” Hui looks genuinely confused.

“My brother almost died from the creatures that were here!” Hui takes a moment before looking Yuto in the eyes.

“They must have turned recently, still had my blood running through them.” Yuto is reminded of how much the creatures smelled of that same sour scent Hui holds.

“Stay away from my brother.” Yuto growls at him. Kino runs to Hui’s side, letting the older caress his face. Yuto leaves the cave, can’t watch it. He doesn’t know why he feels like this - this feeling in his stomach. He’s - he’s jealous. Three is an odd number and Yuto is the odd one out. Now, Yuto really is alone.

Hui stays with Kino over the next few months, the two talking of dreams they have - silly dreams that only humans have. Yuto ventures out instead, looking for new settlements to overlook and make deals with. Really it just gives him something to do and makes Kino happy to watch them, but he’d be lying if he wasn’t impressed with how much humans have learned through the years. The literature becomes really beautiful, poetry unlike anything he knew was able to come from someone’s mind - words that make him feel something inside, and he looks for as many pieces as he can. There’s also beautiful painted tapestries coming from the humans, vibrant colors and scenes that Yuto adores looking at. It makes him think that it’s time for Kino and him to get a real home.

He comes across a nice, surrounded monastery with thick paper for walls and bamboo roofs, the outside adorned and incense burning. He finds the place peaceful and as he resolves to talk to the owner, he watches a beautiful young man skipping across the stones of the river muttering to himself. The man is tall, with big innocent eyes and long dark hair that fits around his jawline. Yuto can’t help but stare, feeling something strange in his heart. He stays close by, listening to the boy.

“Master Wooseok, your father would like you to attend class for the day.” A woman who seems to be an attendant shouts, and Yuto watches the young man scowl as he jumps back to land. “Your father told you not to play the river any longer, since you fell in last time.”

“Water has never hurt anyone.” The young man mutters and the attendant covers her small lips with a smile, looking fondly at her master. Yuto gathers the young man well liked by his servants as he continues to come back to the monastery, never making himself known. The more he watches, the more he finds about the man called Wooseok. His favorite part being the poems that Wooseok likes to make up on the spot, muttering them to himself as he plays around the river. One day, Yuto lets his guard down sitting under his usual tree with his eyes closed - the position he has taken many days to listen to Wooseok’s nice voice tell him stories he comes up with.

“Who are you?” When Yuto opens his eyes, he is met with Wooseok right in front of him - looking curiously, his eyes ever bigger. Yuto shoots up onto his feet, ready to protect himself should Wooseok become afraid of him like humans have started to be after news of the creatures has spread. “Are you tired?”

“No.” Yuto says, surprisingly eager to have his first conversation with a human in years - especially one he’s grown so fond of from just watching.

“Your voice is so deep!” Wooseok laughs.

“Yours is not far behind.” Yuto defends.

“I like it. Your voice would make nice poetry.”

Yuto has thought of making his own, since listening to Wooseok - finding his muse, he supposes. He wonders how the younger would react if he were to write and perform one for him.

“What were you doing under this tree?” Yuto doesn’t know what to say, if Wooseok will call guards if he admits the truth. If in the shade of it, Wooseok can even tell what he is or if he is mistaking him for another human - though the latter seems to be true.

“I was only thinking.” Yuto decides.

“My father tells me to not think too much, or I will ruin my pretty face and not be worth as much.”

Yuto frowns, appalled by the idea. Wooseok is beautiful, but his words even more so - and his heart the most. He has watched him help the attendants, take care of forest animals looking for food, and tend gardens with his kind and pure soul. What could possibly ruin that?

“I do not think anything could ruin your face.” It’s not what he meant to say, but it gets across the message enough. He watches as Wooseok’s cheeks turn pink. He’s always liked human’s different colors.

“You should not say such things to me.” Wooseok says, shy but smiling softly.

“Why not?” Yuto wants to only say such things to him, wants him to know that he is the most enthralling being he’s ever met in all the world’s time.

“I am being given away soon.”

 “Marriage?” Yuto thinks it strange, men aren’t usually the ones given - much more the women. He wonders if it's a new human custom.

“To the man who will buy me.” Wooseok replies, his smile gone and his eyes looking to the sky. “Father says it is all I can do.”

“Is that what you want?” Wooseok looks at him with his big eyes, mouth popped open in shock, as if no one has ever asked him that question before.

“It does not matter.” Wooseok says solemnly.

“Master Wooseok!” An attendant calls, and Yuto realizes it is getting darker out - he sinks back into the shadow of the willows.

“Coming!” Wooseok yells back, looking to Yuto again hastily. “Will you come again?”

Yuto gives him a smile, amused. “If that is what you want.” Wooseok doesn’t have to know that he would come back regardless, but knowing he wants him to - that they will talk again, makes his stomach do flips. Wooseok returns his smile and hears another call. He nods his head in a short bow and runs off. Yuto watches him go inside, his smile not leaving the whole time.

“What are you doing, brother?” Kino asks, sitting on the side of his armrest, running his hand through his brother’s hair. They’ve gotten a small house of their own a little past the town that they now watch over. A town close to Wooseok’s residence.

“I am writing.” He mutters, shy.

“Writing what?”

“Poetry.” Yuto sighs, putting his head down on top of the parchment and getting ink on his chin. Kino laughs, wiping the black liquid off him.

“Did you always enjoy writing poetry?”

“I have always enjoyed poetry.” He answers, leaving out that he only started to write his own because of a certain human. He hasn’t brought up Wooseok to his brother. They haven’t talked much in a long time anyway, the younger staying with Hui on strange missions they go on looking for answers to problems they want solved. Yuto has made up with Hui to some extent, meaning he doesn’t want to rip his throat open when he sees him. It’s not his business who Kino decides to stay with, though he still notices that Hui’s affection isn’t reciprocated in quite the same way. Feelings are complicated, Yuto still trying to figure his own out. He’s fond of Wooseok, though he isn’t sure how the other feels for him. Wooseok has not figured out what he is yet, Yuto is careful to stay in shaded spots that hide his appearance and doesn’t get too close. He’s even started to pretend to breathe from time to time, acting like he gasps when he laughs out of necessity. He’s afraid to tell Wooseok the truth, afraid to hear the words monster directed at him again.

“You have been different lately.” Kino prods. The younger isn’t blind, he’s noticed Yuto has been going out every day and coming back around the same time. “I heard you singing the other day.” He whispers into Yuto’s ear playfully.

“I did not!” Kino giggles at Yuto’s embarrassment.

“Sure, brother.” He gets up. “I am going with Hui again, we have almost figured it all out.” Yuto is back at the parchment, thinking of the right way to describe Wooseok’s eye color, and just hums in reply. “Your love poem is very nice.” Kino says louder, laughing on his way out the door as Yuto jumps out of his skin.

“Is there something wrong?” Yuto asks Wooseok, sitting under their favorite tree. Wooseok is playing on an instrument the humans have invented recently, something that makes lovely noise when you pluck its strings right. Wooseok is good at it. Yuto doesn’t know if there is something Wooseok is not good at. Every day the boy brings him joy, admiration beyond bounds for someone who’s just a human. It’s not that Yuto looks down on humans, but they are so fleeting and weak - that he can’t help but feel he is greater than them in a way. Kino has scolded him from voicing this before but Yuto has only recently started to change his mind, and it is only because of Wooseok. The past few days, Wooseok has been more distant - his head in the clouds and not telling Yuto of all the things he thinks are cool, all the foods he wants to try, all the places he wishes to travel. Yuto wants to give it all to him, take him anywhere he wishes, his heart aches when he thinks of Wooseok not being alive long enough to see it all but Yuto focuses on the time they have now.

“I think I should ask you that.” Wooseok frowns. It is not an expression Yuto has seen before, and without thinking much of it, he reaches out to touch the lines that gather on his furrowed brow. Quickly pulling back when he realizes what he’s done, but it’s too late. Wooseok looks at him in concern. “Your hands are freezing. Why will you not come in? Or out to the sun?”

“I like the shade.” Yuto waves away, nervous. He thought he had more time before this happened, maybe even long enough that he won’t ever have to explain it in the first place, saying it only to Wooseok’s grave - though that thought saddens him more than Wooseok sending him away as the monster he is.

“I do not understand you.” Wooseok frowns more. “I thought our feelings the same.” He says softer, afraid and vulnerable.

“Are they not?” Yuto asks. “I enjoy my time with you.”

“Is that all?” Wooseok looks at his eyes, something strange in them as he looks closer. “Yuto, your eyes are - a strange color.” Yuto looks down, fear threatening to leave him paralyzed. Wooseok reaches out his hand, approaches Yuto’s cheek and the ancient vampire thinks to move away but somehow - he can tell if he does so, he might lose Wooseok more than if he were to know the truth. So he stays, lets the man touch his cheek and gasp at the chill of it. “You are cold all over. Freezing.” It is summer. Yuto looks at him, eyes full of sadness. This is where it hurts. This is where Wooseok realizes and panics, runs away from him screaming. Yuto doesn’t know what to say, he just keeps staring at the beautiful boy in front of him - memorizing every line of his face before he’s unable to see it again. “Is what we have love?” Yuto can’t believe his ears. He’s read about this ‘love’ and he’s not sure what he’s feeling exactly but he thinks it might be. When putting his feelings for Kino and Wooseok side by side, they are similar but not the same. He would do anything for either of them, adores watching the other smile and laugh, wants everything that they do. This is the same, but he has never wanted to feel so close to his brother. He hasn’t watched the way his brother’s eyelashes move, the way his lips move when he speaks. He hasn’t felt the need to call him his , as he does with Wooseok. Yes, this is probably love, he thinks to himself.

“Do you love me?” Yuto asks.

“Maybe, but it is hard to love someone who isn’t being honest.”

“I am not human.” Yuto says out loud, the words feel strange to say. He’s never really had to explain it, most people just know when he appears. He wonders why Wooseok didn’t know. The human laughs, not the reaction Yuto expected but much better than screaming or threatening him.

“I am not blind, Yuto.”

“You knew?”

“I had my suspicions, though I thought you a specter at first.”

“You sound more sure now?”

“You were resting your eyes under the tree, so deep in thought, you did not notice me put my head to your chest.” Yuto remembers. He thought it a dream, though Yuto has never slept in his life. Nothing else made sense. “You don’t have a heartbeat.”

“Do you still think me a ghost?” Yuto smiles, amused at the thought.

“No,” Wooseok shakes his head. “A god of some kind, like in the tales we read.” Yuto has seen them, the tales of the sun goddess creating rivers and trees - silly things.

“That is a nice way to put it.” Yuto hums. “I know not what I am. I am simply me, much as humans are humans and animals are animals. I am just another category, but I do not think I am the good guy.”

“You have never been bad.” Wooseok laughs. “I cannot imagine it.” Yuto smiles sadly at the thought. If honesty is what the boy wants, it’s what he’ll give him.

“I have killed children.”

Wooseok is quiet, looking away from him before speaking again.

“Do you regret it?”

“Yes, but only because of what I now know.” Wooseok turns to him again, his eyes shining with unspilled tears. “Why are you crying?”

“I have never heard someone sound so sad.” Wooseok comes closer, his body hangs over Yuto’s before he settles himself on top of the vampire’s chest. “I do not think not having a heartbeat means not having a heart, and I do not think you are a bad person. I would never fall in love with a bad person.” Yuto’s chest jumps, a sob breaking itself from his ribs, and he bows his head.

“Can you love a monster?”

“If that is what you name yourself,” Wooseok nods. “I love you , Yuto. No matter what you think you are.”

“And what others think of me? Does that not matter to you?”

“No.” Wooseok smiles, lifting his head to direct it at him before the smile melts into a look that Yuto himself is adopting. They don’t say anything as they move their faces closer to each other, their noses brush and they look into each others’ eyes one more time before closing the gap with their lips. It takes them a moment, finding their lips again and again, both clumsy at their first kiss but their laughter makes it more special. Yuto wants to embed Wooseok’s laughter into all aspects of his life. They pull back, and Wooseok nuzzles his face into Yuto’s robes, giggling. “That was my first kiss.”

“Mine too.” Yuto says, smiling as he runs his hand through Wooseok’s hair as Kino does to him at times.

“How could that be true?” Wooseok looks at him with a pout.

“What?”

“You are so handsome. How could no one have stolen a kiss before me?”

“Hearing that from you is truly an honor. You did not steal anything from me. I gave it to you.” Yuto laughs, pecking the young man’s nose. “I would give you anything you ask for.”

“Anything?” Wooseok sounds deep in thought once more, and Yuto nods - meaning every word. Wooseok looks as though he’ll say something more when they hear a scream. Wooseok jumps up, away from Yuto’s arms, looking at a young woman who has dropped a basket of linen nearby. Yuto recognizes her as one of the attendants.

“Young master, you must get away!” She screams, starting to back away. “You are not thinking right! The monster has put a spell on you!”

“Yuki, please calm yourself.” Wooseok runs to her, taking her hands. The woman is shaking. Wooseok looks back at Yuto, who looks hurt and resigned at the same time. Nothing he isn’t used to, Wooseok realizes. “There is nothing wrong.”

“Your father, he has found a buyer.” She says back. Yuto watches Wooseok’s back tense. He still doesn’t get the whole buyer thing, but he can tell Wooseok does not like it. “You must get ready.” Wooseok nods.

“Please, do not tell anyone what you saw.” Yuki looks at Yuto in horror, then back at Wooseok and her gaze steels itself.

“If you listen to your father, I will not. You must not meet him again. You do not know what those things do.”

“Do not speak of him that way!” Wooseok yells. “I am already doing everything he asks of me. Give this one thing to me. Just for now. It is nearly over.”

Yuki points her nose up, walking back to the house. Wooseok turns around to comfort Yuto, but he is gone. The sun is almost set, and with a heavy heart, Wooseok

goes inside to pack to leave - forever.

“Brother, what is the matter?” Kino asks Yuto, lying in his bed with his arm over his eyes, concerned.

“What do you feel with Hui?” Yuto sits up, looking at Kino. The younger one looks confused.

“I do not know? I feel less alone, I suppose.” Kino thinks to himself. “He understands me.”

“Right. So do you think that is love?” Kino looks at him strangely.

“Love? No. Hui is nothing like that to me.” It’s then the door opens, Hui knocking on it only after with a smile that looks nothing like the one he usually has with Kino.

“Did not mean to interrupt.” Yuto understands what it is that’s different. Hui is hurt. Yuto feels pity for him, but he’s known for a while that he and Kino seemed to be on different pages. “Kino, one of them agreed. They want to meet when the moon rises.”

“What are you two on about?”

“I have been telling you for days now.” Kino huffs, exasperated. “You do not listen, always thinking of someone else.” He smiles knowingly, but his smile falls when he sees the look on Yuto’s face. “Did something happen to him?”

“No. I do not know. He is gone.” Yuto lays back down, covering his eyes again but Kino sees the tear slip down.

“Perhaps he is traveling.” Kino reasons.

“I do not think he is returning.”

“Kino, we must be going.” Hui looks at him expectantly.

“Have hope, brother.” Kino says softly, kissing the top of his head and taking his hand for a moment. Hui looks away. Yuto can feel something wrong, a bad feeling in his stomach, but he doesn’t get up. His heart feels torn. He knows he’ll never see Wooseok again if he doesn’t go looking, and he’s not sure the other would want him to. He hears the door close behind Kino’s departure, and thinks of Wooseok’s wide eyes and pretty lips. Lips he got to kiss once and never again.

He combs the surrounding villages, the forests, but doesn’t find Wooseok for a few days. When he does, he is in a palace inside a large city, sitting on a balcony looking at the moon with robes that don’t cover his legs or shoulders - barely cover anything at all, definitely not the bruises he can see peeking out on his hips. When Wooseok sees Yuto watching him from the reeds, he looks behind him first making sure the room is clear, then steps into the water - robes still on - wading towards his lover. He collapses into Yuto’s arms, sobbing.

“I still do not know if I wanted you to see me like this.” Wooseok says through his crying, and Yuto holds back baring fangs from the scent on Wooseok’s skin - from the appearance of the young man.

“What - what is this?” Yuto asks, reaching for his robes. Wooseok smells artificially sweet, of hibiscus and cherry blossom. “Who hurt you?”

“Yuto, you never understood what I meant. Did you? Who I am?”

“I guess we share that about each other.” Neither laughs.

“I am the noble’s plaything. My father sold me, sold my body, to the man who keeps me here.”

“Why would you agree to such a thing?” Yuto almost shouts, but Wooseok closes his mouth with his hand, looking the vampire in the eyes.

“Humans rarely get a choice, Yuto.” Wooseok looks angry. Yuto doesn’t understand. He could protect him, he could take him away from everything.

“That day we were caught. I thought of asking you to take me with you, if you loved me too. Now, I do not know if you can.”

“Why would I stop?” Yuto holds Wooseok closer, the robes soaking through Yuto’s as well. “How? How do I stop loving you?”

“I am dirty.” Wooseok sobs, tries to push Yuto away. The vampire holds his hands, just firmly enough to keep him there.

“You told me that you would accept what I call myself, but I will not let you do that with this word.” Wooseok stops struggling, instead moving closer into his lover once more. “You are not dirty for what he did to you.” Wooseok cries again, and Yuto runs his hands through the other’s hair. “Come back with me now.” There’s something about the way they’re meeting that already lets Yuto know, Wooseok will not say yes.

“My mother. She is sick.” Wooseok explains, and Yuto understands. Humans have families, Kino said that day.

“I will help her as well. I have the means.” They are sitting on the bank, Wooseok inside Yuto’s open legs, and Yuto can’t help himself. He pulls them into a kiss, tasting the lips he’s been thinking about for so long since the first day. “Let me help you.”

“Show me. Show me that my mother is okay, and I will go with you.” Wooseok promises. Yuto nods, placing another kiss on his lips.

“I have to go, Yuto. He will be looking for me soon.” Yuto does not know what he can say. Humans are so complicated, with their structures and civilizations. He watches him go inside the palace, heart tearing itself apart even more, but he’ll be back the next night with Wooseok’s mother safe and sound inside their new home - waiting on them. He will let her drink his blood for healing. He can do this much. He can do anything for Wooseok, anything at all.

It’s funny how these things work out. Funny in a tragic way. Yuto knows its his own fault, that he should have asked Kino what he was doing with Hui, that he should have thought to keep an eye on Hui in the first place, to trust that bad feeling. It’s all these things that he misses that leave things the way they are, he thinks as he looks at the man who used to be Wooseok’s father - dead on the ground, next to his wife. Kino looks afraid of him, of Yuto, like that day he was surrounded by the corpses.

“We did not know.” Kino attempts to talk, but Yuto looks at him with the eyes of a monster, then at Hui.

“ You did this.” Yuto rounds against the smaller vampire, snarling in his face. “With your little games, just had to drag Kino into it too with your idiotic feelings!” He’s roaring, the fear that Wooseok will hate him consuming him. He won’t blame him. In the end, humans can’t love monsters - even if the monsters love them.

“You are one to talk when you are here for someone else just as well!” Hui roars back, fangs baring. “As if you would not do anything for the one you love.”

“This is different!”

“Yes! The difference is that your love was doomed from the moment you fell for a human, you fool.”

“Hui!” Kino yells, caught between as though he is just a child watching his parents fight.

“At least my human loved me back.” Yuto laughs in Hui’s face. “You have been running around delusional, just hoping you can do enough to get my brother to look at you the way you do.”

“What is he talking about, Hui?” Hui looks at Kino in shock.

“Nothing, Kino.” For a moment, Yuto feels bad for the other once more - his fangs shrink back into his mouth. He looks at the mess they’ve made, shaking his head and groaning.

“No, no, no.” He mouths over and over again.

“Brother, she agreed. She asked to turn. We did not know it would not work.” Kino pleads with him. “Her pain is over now. That is what matters.”

“Is that what I tell Wooseok?” Yuto slaps Kino’s hand off his shoulder in one big movement of his arm, sending the other to the floor.

“I do not know.” Kino stands, walking back to Hui. “I do not care what you tell Wooseok, brother.” Kino is being mean, but he’s so tired of his brother’s moods. He’s the one who’s killed the man here anyway, unwilling to tell anyone why. He doesn’t even know that Kino has been trying and failing to raise vampires, because he is lonely . So goddamn lonely, as he runs to his Wooseok day in and day out. His brother doesn’t even know that he’s asked Hui if he’d take his life, drink all of it right out of him so he can finally rest. Kino doesn’t care anymore. He can see that his brother will be just fine without him, the only reason he’s held back for so long. “Go find him. I am sure he misses you.” Kino doesn’t add that lately, he misses his brother too.

Yuto thinks it is better to tell Wooseok himself, than to hear news from a courier delivering the message, so he does go to find him. He stands at the same spot he was spotted yesterday, looking around the balcony for his form, but when he looks down at the river between them he finds him. Wooseok is naked, bloody, his back covered in welts as though he was whipped by something, lying face down in the still rushing river. Yuto thinks if he was still alive, he’d die of heartbreak right now. Yuto thinks that without Wooseok, he wishes he would die. He lifts the young man’s body out of the water, tears running down his face silently, and lays him on the ground they sat on just last night. The place where they had their second kiss. Wooseok is still warm, Yuto realizes, meaning he was killed recently and Yuto remembers all the things Hui has said - the way to turn a human, only moments after they’ve died.

Yuto doesn’t know if Wooseok wants it, the unending passage of time - doesn’t even really know if Wooseok will still love him when he wakes but all these things are put on the back burner of his mind as he thinks that Wooseok can live on, keep laughing and smiling, keep playing music and writing poetry. He can go to see all the places he so wanted to, he can have everything he’s ever wanted.

The choice seems easy then, and their third kiss is full of Yuto’s blood.

Yuto takes Wooseok’s corpse back to their house, laying him on his bed and covering his naked form - uncaring of the blood his back spreads. He sits next to Wooseok, crying still because he doesn’t know if it will work - and even if it does, human Wooseok is gone. He feels the body beside him twitch and start to stir and when Wooseok’s eyes open he looks depraved, his fangs are all the way out. He jumps on top of Yuto, pinning the other to his own bed and Yuto barely understands what’s going on when Wooseok tears into his shoulder and Yuto screams from the pain but doesn’t fight it. He can do this much, after messing everything up so bad. He feels that sense Hui talked about, of years being drained from him, and thinks it might be nice to die by Wooseok’s will. He’s starting to lose consciousness from the new vampire’s relentless taking, when the door is thrown open and Kino takes Wooseok off yelling something Yuto can’t make out. The last thing Yuto can do before he loses consciousness is mutter the plea to not hurt him. Kino looks confused but gives the less violent vampire to Hui, who takes him out of the room. He thinks he hears Kino crying in his sleep, something about being glad he won’t be alone when he’s gone. Yuto can’t believe the first time he gets to sleep he has a nightmare. Just his luck.

It’s twilight when Yuto comes to, looking around the room in a panic for a sign of Wooseok but the young vampire is sitting in a chair right in front of him - looking at him with emotions Yuto can almost place, something he’s felt before maybe.

“Wooseok,” he gets up from the bed, about to reach for the other’s face which has paled but defiant red eyes glare back at him and he’s too shocked to continue. “How are you feeling?”

“I did not ask for this.” Wooseok says coldly. Yuto’s heart sinks.

“I - I thought you would want to keep living.”

“ This is not living.” Wooseok snorts. Yuto hides the hurt, tries to reason with him.

“So you would have rather been left in that river after Heavens knows what happened to you?” Yuto tries to laugh it off, tries to play it down but he can feel the storm brewing.

“Humans are not just some phase in between, Yuto!” Wooseok yells. “Were you planning this all along? Since we met?” Yuto hasn’t been, he never even considered turning anyone. It’s not that he wanted to turn Wooseok.

“I just did not want to be alone.” Yuto admits, honest and open.

“It is my life!” Wooseok snarls. “You do not get to make my choice for me.”

“It has been done!” Yuto yells, unable to keep the frustration down after all. He had expected the reuniting to be confusing but not like this. Wooseok looks at him with hate, hate not the same as the villagers he slaughtered - laced with too many memories of love to be so spiteful, but maybe that’s what hurts more. Wooseok remembers it all, remembers him - them - and still chooses not to be together. “What do you want me to do? Kill you again?”

Yuto’s eyes fill with tears as Wooseok looks at him expectantly, like he’s agreeing. “No.” His voice shakes, nearly gone. “You cannot ask me to do that.”

“How can you ask me to live after this?” Wooseok cries, his own tears spilling and sobs breaking out. He tears off the robe Yuto recognizes as Kino’s, turns his back to him, and Yuto gasps at the scars on his back - healed past the point they ever could be for a mere human, but permanent and evident. Yuto gets closer, attempts to hold him. Wooseok turns, eyes glowing and fangs bared. “You don’t understand me at all, Yuto.” Yuto supposes he doesn’t. He thought all humans would want a long life, beauty and power.

“I am sorry.” Yuto means it, can see how torn apart the younger is. “If I could die, I would let you kill me but you cannot ask me to kill you.” His voice feels blocked off, his mind feels like it's elsewhere. “Even if you cannot love me anymore, I will never stop loving you.” He looks into Wooseok’s eyes.

“If you think that this is merely a separation,” Wooseok narrows his eyes at him, “that I suddenly lost my feelings for you,” Yuto turns to the door, unable to take the heartwrenching words even if he deserves it “you truly do not understand.”

“How do you expect me to understand, Wooseok?” Yuto groans, digs his nails into his palms. “I have never been human.”

“This is not about that.” When Yuto looks at Wooseok again, the young vampire simply looks dejected - as though something he can’t fix has happened. “I cannot stay with you, when you cannot even understand how you have hurt me. When you believe that your decision was the right one.”

“I do not!” Yuto apologized and meant it.

“You do.” Wooseok smiles sadly. “Sometimes the ones we love know us better than we know ourselves. If you cannot understand me because you have never been human, then why is it your brother can?” At this, Wooseok opens the door, putting a foot through. Yuto can go around the world if he wishes, but this parting feels like their last time. If the other foot goes out that door, Yuto will lose him. “I do not blame you for my mother, and I am thankful for the death of that pig I called father.” Wooseok wipes a tear away once more. “Even still,” he looks back at him.

“Please,” Yuto whispers. Wooseok shakes his head.

“Goodbye, love. Let us not meet again.” Yuto jumps forward, grabs his wrist - but Wooseok shakes it off, never once looking back at him. He leaves.

Once again, Yuto is alone.

Yuto isn’t really alone, he has Kino. He’s always had Kino, but love makes people blind in more ways than one. Though Kino spends nights with his brother, petting his hair and repeating his favorite poetry - Yuto only wishes Wooseok was here with him. No poem sounds better than Wooseok’s, than just the sound of his voice, and Yuto wishes he knew how to sleep. If only to see Wooseok in his dreams.

“You cannot spend the rest of your life like this.” Kino says, about a month has passed. Yuto grunts, means for it to say he definitely can and probably will. “Why not come with Hui and I tomorrow?” The two have another willing human to turn, this one not sick and therefore likely to make it. Yuto isn’t sure how he feels about this whole thing yet. The human is not sick, not dying in any way, which means that they’ll have to kill them first before turning and then it might not even work. The human has expressed knowing all this, and yet still wanting it. Yuto doesn’t understand humans at all, or maybe just Wooseok. Maybe Wooseok is different. He sighs, sitting up from the bed he lives in lately, lamenting and staring at the spot Wooseok stood just a month ago. Nobody knows where he is now, Yuto doesn’t have the heart to look after him - deep down he’s angry that Wooseok doesn’t feel as strongly about being together as he does. He feels betrayed. “Let us get you out of the house.” Kino smiles at him warmly, and Yuto is reminded of the times before Wooseok, days spent watching over his little brother, and feels guilty for neglecting him for so long. He nods in agreement, and smiles back slightly. “I will get you next night. Be ready.”

“Are you sure about this, brother?” Yuto voices his apprehension.

“I am.” Kino says resolutely back. “We are not doing anything the human does not want, and I trust Hui.”

“That is the part I worry about.”

“Do not start again.” Kino hisses.

“I do not want you getting hurt.”

“Hui would never hurt me.” Yuto thinks that’s probably true. Still, he figures it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the two and bids him goodbye until their journey. 

Yuto does not feel anything when Hui snaps the human’s neck quickly, the way the human asked to be taken - trusting them that they would come back as a creature of the night. Hui drips his own blood to their mouth through his lips and Yuto looks away, uncomfortable when he remembers the same with Wooseok. His heart is torn to the smallest fragments, as he thinks of what Wooseok could possibly mean and drowns in his sorrow at the other not wanting to be with him despite his apology. He helps Kino hold back the ravaged new vampire as Hui allows it to drink from his wrist and pulls away when it has had enough and faints once more.

“How many is this now?” Yuto asks Kino, as the three of them wait for the new one to wake.

“Twenty.” Yuto looks at him with huge eyes, afraid.

“You do not think this is too many?”

“There are too many humans to count in this world, Yuto.” Kino laughs.

“Is that what you are trying to do? Be like them?” Kino frowns, picking at his long nails.

“Why not?”

“I do not understand your fondness of them.”

“Yes, you do. You are quite fond of Wooseok.”

“I was. Wooseok is gone now.”

“Why did you not follow him, brother?” Kino places a hand on his brother’s shoulder in support.

“His eyes looked like the townspeople.” Yuto thinks back to the first time he was called a monster, the moment that made him one. “He will not ever forgive me.” Kino doesn’t know what to say to that, doesn’t voice that he thinks Yuto is wrong - that there’s something more to their relationship he can feel. He can’t place his finger on it, but it’s something like destiny. He’s sure their paths will cross again, but wonders if he’ll be there to see it. The new vampire wakes, they explain how things work to them and leave them to their own devices - not caring to be any kind of leader. When they get back to the house, Yuto thinks that nothing is helping and wonders how long someone can endure so much pain. Soon, he finds out what real pain can be.

He finds it in the lifeless body of his brother, his blood running from Hui’s lips as he holds him in his arms and glares at Yuto with no remorse in those black eyes.

“How?” Yuto is in shock, no tears coming out as Hui drops Kino. His corpse unmoving, his eyes closed forever. The vampire before him wipes at the blood, licks it off his hands with a snarl. “How could you hurt him if you loved him?” Hui can’t fathom it. He can’t wrap his mind around death. It’s a human concept, something only they do - dying .

“What use is unrequited love?” Hui’s voice is depraved, more of a growl than words. “Do you not feel it? You want to kill that little human you let go, do you not? Deep down. You do not want him with anybody else after all. Think of how sweet his blood would taste.”

It’s the threat against Wooseok that makes Yuto snap, turning him into the animal that Hui became when he drank Kino dry. Yuto feels his heart disappear completely as he tears the other vampire apart, slamming him under him - stronger, running on rage and pure love for his dear dead brother. His fangs sink into Hui and he drinks without stopping, he can feel the vampire crying under him but feels no remorse when he’s all too aware of his brother lying on the cold floor mere feet away. He takes and takes, until Hui is just as lifeless under him - until there is no blood left to take and then still Yuto rips at his body screaming. He stumbles to his brother, grabbing him by the collar and wrapping his arms tightly around him as he sobs - his throat hurts so much but it’s nothing to his heart. He screams his brother’s name over and over again, but there’s no response at all. Yuto doesn’t know how long he stays there, gripping his brother tightly as if someone will take him away even still - it might be hours, days, even weeks. Time doesn’t matter. Yuto is truly alone this time, not a soul to care for him or him to care for anymore. His mind is blank as he thinks of what Hui said before, that they’re the only ones who can kill each other and beats himself up for not thinking of asking Hui to kill him too. When Yuto comes to a more productive consciousness, he rips open his wrist and puts the blood to Kino’s lips letting it pour out but it’s not like before. Kino still does not move. He doesn’t open his eyes to look at him. Yuto crumbles but takes both Hui and Kino with him, traveling forests looking for a residence to hide in for years. He finds a castle abandoned after ravages of war, traveling far away from civilization - not wanting to see anyone anymore, least of all the humans that let Kino and Hui meet for the first time.

Yuto buries Hui despite what he’s done, something inside him unable to fully despise the man when he can kinda see where he’s coming from - though not as wild. He keeps Kino’s body with him, deep in the castle - in a bed as though Kino is just sleeping for a long long time. Yuto dotes on his restless form, making sure nothing is harming his body. He is grateful their bodies don’t rot - his brother staying as beautiful as always for years.

It takes several centuries for Yuto to venture out again, watching what the humans have discovered. Everything seems much more complicated now, the dwellings much more sophisticated - the speech changing as well. He watches ladies walk around in elaborate dress, the men wearing bottoms that cover their legs. Yuto gets strange looks from his robes, stopping by a shop that seems to sell the new strange clothes and a man offers to walk around him with a long rope touching his various limbs. Yuto doesn’t understand but he pays with gold, leaving the man looking very surprised - so Yuto gathers the currency has changed once more, and leaves looking more human. He walks around, taking in the buildings - some of them with stone structures funneling out smoke. The houses are no longer made of wood but some kind of red stone, laid meticulously. Yuto is impressed by how much humans grow, smiles at how Kino would probably love walking around in this - commenting on every little thing - and then his smile falls when reality hits again. He doesn’t feel like being out anymore, wanting to hide in his castle with his brother once more and turns to go. He decides to take small alleys between buildings that cover his face as he makes his way back. It’s this decision that leads him to find him.

A human is leaning heavily against a wall, throwing up, and gasping. Yuto can smell the blood. He watches at a distance, the man who looks young doesn’t cry even though Yuto can tell he is dying. More than that, he can tell that the man himself knows he is dying. Yuto moves, the heel of his new shoes clicking a little too loud and the human looks up.

“Who’s there?” His voice is steady, not afraid. He doesn’t have a lot to lose.

“I was already departing.” Yuto answers, his voice sounding strange to him as he hasn’t spoken to a soul in so long.

“What are you doing back here?”

“I was lost.” A cover up. The man straightens, though it proves difficult for him and he clutches at his stomach anyway. 

“Horse shit. No one finds their way back here by accident. You had to jump over multiple gates.”

“My apologies.” Yuto doesn’t know what else to say. The whole situation is rather awkward. The man steps further into the light and Yuto is struck by how young he really looks. His eyes are wide and youthful with pouty lips, no blemish on his small face. The man is built like a statue, rippling muscles showing through the dirty work attire he wears, but his demeanor seems more gentle.

“Who sent you here?” The man’s breath is labored, the more he stands the more he bends into himself.

“You should sit.”

“If I sit, I never get up.” Yuto watches him. This man won’t get up whether he sits or not, Yuto guesses it is better to die in comfort.

“Please, you should sit.” The man, boy really, looks at him and groans as he gives in and sinks onto his legs. “What is the matter?”

“You really don’t know what you’re doing here, do you?” The man laughs.

“I was simply walking home.”

“You sure do talk old fashioned.” It's at this moment that the man really looks at Yuto and observes him closely. “You’re strange...” Yuto is curious about what vampires are to this new world, and he figures asking a dead man isn’t a bad idea.

“Am I strange? Have you not seen my kind before?”

“Oh, you’re one of those bloodsuckers, huh?” His eyes are closed now, his breathing worse, something tugs at Yuto’s heart. Maybe it’s the youthful look or the lack of fear or reaction at all that makes him care for this human. Maybe Yuto is just lonely.

“I suppose I am.”

“I ain’t against your kind. I don’t really care either way, you know. Just don’t harm no one.”

“Is that what it is like now?”

“What’s your name, stranger? I’d like to know who’s by my side as I die.”

“You are aware you are dying.”

“Ain’t no brainiac thinking needed for that one.” The young man laughs and spews up more blood.

“You may call me Yuto.” He doesn’t know what possesses him to reach out and hold his hand, but he takes it and the other smiles at him slightly.

“I’m Hongseok.”

“Are you afraid?”

“Ah, who knows? Guess everyone dies eventually anyway, don’t they? I wasn’t the most careful in my life. The alley you’re in is my gang’s turf. You’re awfully brave to be walking in here, or stupid.”

“What is ailing you?”

“You been locked away for years or somethin’? You talk funny.” Hongseok winces, Yuto can sense he’s in a lot of pain now. “Poison.”

“It must hurt.”

“It sure does.” Tears fall from his eyes, and his hand tightens around Yuto’s. Yuto feels as though he might cry as well, something heavy in his heart. It doesn’t take consideration. It only takes a thought.

“Would you like to keep living?” Hongseok can’t keep his eyes open anymore, and his groans turn to screams. “Do you want me to make this stop?”

“You gonna kill me?” Hongseok still manages to laugh through that somehow, teary eyes looking at Yuto’s and frowning. “You look like you care about me or something, stranger.”

“What if I could make you like me?”

“Everyone knows that’s not possible. I’m dying anyway, if you’re thirsty - go ahead. Don’t lie to me.”

Yuto is taken aback by how uncaring the younger man is, and is suddenly very passionate about saving him in whatever way he can.
“You said it yourself, I am strange. If you trust me enough to drink, can you trust me enough to try and change you?”

“What? To be a vampire?” Hongseok whispers, he’s fading fast. His skin is turning deathly pale and his eyes are far away. Yuto nods in solemnity. “I don’t know if I believe you.” His words fall like raindrops, slipping out of his mouth as if his tongue is loose and tired like the rest of him. “But I... trust...” and with that Yuto watches Hongseok pass in front of him, a slight smile on his face. Yuto thinks it’s really a shame for the world to lose such an interesting person, for him to lose him without really knowing him - so he hopes Hongseok will survive the transformation and hopes even more that he’ll stay with him once he does.

Yuto and Hongseok find Yan An another century later, torn in his abdomen by what look like tiny cannons inside soldiers arms and blabbering about wanting to see his mother one last time. Yuto asks him the usual questions and Yan An begs him to do it, claiming he wants to live - that he doesn’t want to kill anyone anymore. It breaks Yuto’s heart to see him, just turned what the humans call an adult, on the battlefield. Yan An takes a long time to adjust to the need to drink blood, and in the 1960s he comes up with clever ways to take the blood that humans donate instead because the times have changed too much for them to simply ask for people to offer their necks anymore and they have to survive somehow.

Yuto continues to keep Kino in that same castle, which is now occupied by three and can even be heard filled with laughter at times between the three friends. Their bond is like no other and one day, Yuto decides to share his brother with them - stories about him and how they were together for so long. It brings about the inevitable question. Hongseok asks first.

“Where - is he?” He looks around the room as if Kino will walk in with a huge grin and a ‘ Hey, been here the whole time and you never noticed. ’ Yuto wishes it could be so simple. Hongseok notices the change in demeanor, though the ancient vampire is often sulky and sometimes outright mad in the many years he’s stayed by his side.

“Sleeping.” Yuto answers, not meeting either of their eyes.

“I thought vampires don’t sleep,” Yan An starts and Hongseok shoots him a look that says it all - that it’s obviously not a nice topic. Yuto doesn’t mind. He wants to talk about Kino, wants people to know him.

“Come with me.” He leads them to Kino’s room, where he’s stayed for eons - in that same robe with his neck torn from Hui’s lips. It’s this detail that made Yuto figure it out, made him dig up Hui’s body and find it rotting like any human - truly dead. The fact that Kino has stayed this way for so long, must mean he’s not dead after all. The day Yuto realized this was a relief as much as a burden - because it had been over 500 years and the man was still in deep sleep. Yuto doesn’t know how to wake him up, and worries he’ll stay asleep forever. It’s as good as Kino being dead to him, he doesn’t hear his voice or watch his bright eyes - hasn’t for far too long. Yuto is lonely. Hongseok and Yan An have helped more than Yuto had ever thought possible, and he comes to realize what Kino meant all those years ago when he yearned for what the humans had. Yuto feels Hongseok and Yan An are family . Now he just needs his brother.

“How long has he been like this?” Hongseok asks, a hand on Yuto’s shoulder as he watches his brother with sad eyes. 

“You cannot imagine.” Yuto whispers.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’ve tried everything I can think of, he doesn’t wake.” He watches as Yan An approaches his body, lips open in awe.

“He’s beautiful.” Yan An says, reverent. Yuto smiles, knowing it’s more than true.

“Always has been.”

“You’ve given him blood?”

“Yes. Human and my own, he doesn’t wake.”

“What about vampires?”

“I said I gave him my own.”

Hongseok and Yan An look at each other, shaking their heads.

“No, Yuto. Like us.” Yuto’s eyes widen, and he looks between the two and his brother with his mouth wide open in shock. He’s never talked to a vampire like Hongseok and Yan An before, and he made them. He doesn’t know what to do. Part of him wants immediately to ask them to give their blood, without any shame, but another part is afraid it will be just another thing that doesn’t work. Before he has time to do anything, he smells Yan An’s blood and watches the stream run down Kino’s lips into his mouth.

Yuto turns his back to his brother, who doesn’t move - standing and trying to hold back tears he honestly thought ran dry long ago.

“Yuto?” Kino’s voice sounds from behind him, and Yuto turns ever so slowly watching Hongseok’s face beside him who is wide eyed and looking back at him. Yuto swallows. “Brother?” The tears fall out, running in generous streams and he runs to his brother - hugging him tighter than he’s ever done and sobbing. “What happened? Who are these people?” Hongseok and Yan An smile, deciding to give the two their space and leave the room.

“You’re back. You’re here.” Yuto finally says, rushed and quiet holding his face inside Kino’s neck which has healed over.

“Brother, where’s Hui?” Kino sounds afraid as he says it, and for a moment Yuto is afraid Kino will hate him, hate him even more than the first time he went mad for his sake. Maybe he won’t ever come back. “He wanted to -”

“He won’t hurt you anymore.” Yuto answers. Kino cries with him, whispering sorries into his chest as he realizes how much time must have passed - how alone his brother has been, and then he goes to meet the two people who kept him company while Kino could not.

They become a family, and nothing breaks it for a long time. 

Not until Yan An falls in love.

When Yan An pleads with him to turn his human, his love, Changgu. Yuto wants to help, he honestly does. He loves Yan An, and wants to see him happy with his partner for a long time but he’s also aware that Changgu chose to pass as a human. Yuto hasn’t thought of Wooseok seriously for a long time, choosing to lock that pain deep when Kino gave him a scare for a few millennia, and this event brings it all back. He refuses with a heavy heart, and when Yan An pleads for Yuto to kill him instead, unable to go on - Yuto looks on with sad eyes. Kino consoles Yan An as they find the best spot to bury Changgu, somewhere with a lot of beautiful flowers and fresh air. Yan An visits every day, not speaking to Yuto until one fateful day - Wooseok appears at their doorstep.

“What are you doing here?” The only words that Yuto can manage to get out when Wooseok enters his room at a time he just happens to be writing poetry.

“You don’t sound that happy to see me.” Wooseok laughs. Yuto closes his eyes with a frown, gripping his desk with strength as he hides the pain for the sake of the moment, before Wooseok leaves him once again. When he finally gets his first look at Wooseok in so long, he is struck with that same love that never left. The boy has shorter hair, and he’s dyed it pink. Yuto’s own is green, something Kino talked him into when he heard what the humans had been doing outside. Yuto doesn’t mind it.

“You look good.”

“Exactly the same.” Wooseok says, sounding more tired than angry.

“Yes.” Yuto doesn’t know what else to say. “The same as when I first fell in love.”

“Even with the pink?” Wooseok laughs again, nervous. Yuto bottles the sound in his head like fireflies. “You look good too.”

“Exactly the same?” Yuto offers.

“No.” It’s a surprise. He looks Wooseok in the eyes, asking him to explain. “Something is different. Something in your eyes.”

“A lot has happened.” Yan An has slowly started to speak with him again, Yuto guesses Kino has convinced him. He takes anything he can get, afraid of losing more of his family at any time.

“There’s something warmer in them.” Wooseok smiles, and Yuto’s heart clenches. He wonders how he’s supposed to act when he walks away again, if he’ll ever be able to lock these feelings away after this, after being granted a smile after so long. “Who’s the guy who let me in?”

“Hongseok.”

“And the other two?”

“Kino and Yan An.” 

“Kino? Your brother?” Yuto smiles, fond at the idea that Wooseok hasn’t forgotten anything either.

“Yes. My baby brother.” They stand feet apart, Yuto wants nothing more than to walk forward and wrap his arms around him, press their lips together, but knows that’s not something granted to him any longer. “Why are you here?” Why must you torment me like this?

“It’s lonely, even if you have people.” Woosek starts, he’s the one to walk forward first. “I’d walk around, looking at all the sights I’ve always dreamt of and thinking how nice it would be if you were there.”

“You tried to kill me just seven hundred years ago.”

“It’s funny how much you can love someone, even if you hate them.” Wooseok looks sad as he says that. Yuto opens his mouth but Wooseok talks again first. “I don’t hate you anymore.”

“What changed?”

“I guess it’s true what they say. Time heals all wounds, and we’ve had a lot of time - haven’t we?” Yuto steps forward, they’re close enough to hug now but Yuto reaches his hand out for Wooseok instead, holding back even still. Wooseok takes it. “My hand used to be warm enough to feel the difference between yours, remember?”

“I’m sorry.” It’s all he can think to say, even still. He’s always meant it but he knows now what for, to take that warmth out of Wooseok’s body but not let him die - like humans are graced with. Yuto used to think that humans are unfortunate and weak. Now he knows what it means to be able to rest.

“I accept your apology.” Wooseok holds his other hand. “Would you forgive me for all I’ve done?”

“I forgave you not long after you left.”

“Do you feel it, Yuto?” Wooseok’s brows furrow. “This strange feeling,” he looks at Yuto’s eyes and lips, “this feeling that we couldn’t be apart if we tried.”

“I thought I was alone in that.”

“How sad must you have been,” Wooseok takes one of his hands and brings it to Yuto’s cheek instead, their eyes searching each other’s, “for the amount of nights I cried with you.”

“It’s strange isn’t it? That connection. It’s so tangible. Like we could grab it, like a thread.”

“The humans talk of a red thread of fate,” Wooseok smiles, amused. Yuto is taken aback at the way it feels to have Wooseok talk about the humans in the same way he does, from an outsider’s view.

“Do you think it’s true?”

“I don’t know. Destiny or not, I made the choice to come back here. I nearly went back the night before, thought maybe I was wrong after all.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I love you. I don’t want to love you alone anymore. Vampires are lonely creatures, if we don’t have each other - who do we have?” Yuto thinks of Yan An and Changgu, of himself with Wooseok before all this.

“Humans can love us too.” 

“Yes, they can, but there is a good thing in being like this now.” Wooseok’s smile is mischievous, and Yuto thinks maybe he fell asleep again somehow like that day under the willow tree with the heartbeat. “We have all the time in the world.”

Their fourth kiss is a reunion waiting to happen. Wooseok in Yuto’s arms feels right, their lips against each other like there’s nothing else they could possibly do. They reminisce about what had been, and talk of what can be, when Kino knocks on the door and peeks his head in when Yuto yells to come in. He can see Hongseok and Yan An’s heads peeking on the other side of the door and he smiles. Their family is finally complete - or so he thinks, until Kino brings that scrawny baby vampire Yuto doesn’t like at first but treats as a second brother when the time comes. Their family continues to grow with Jinho, Hongseok’s partner who joins not much later than Shinwon. Yuto stops thinking of the limits of his family completely, when another millenia passes and Yan An brings a new man in as his partner. Yuto is shocked at first, but quickly comes to realize why Yan An looks at the man with tears in his eyes and welcomes him with open arms.



“Do you ever want to be alone?” Kino asks him one day, frustrated at the lack of privacy he and Shinwon get most days with everyone hyper and constantly wanting to play with the lovable vampires. Yuto smiles, ruffles his brother’s hair.

“Not at all.”