Archive of Our Own

Friday September 2, 1955

Two Locals Boys Missing, Presumed Dead As Plainsville Puts Curfew In Place

Plainsville may have a murderer in their midst. Police tell us that on Friday August 26 two young men (R. Duffy and B. Jeremy) left their school after the big game and haven’t made contact since. They were last seen walking down the main stretch outside of town wearing blue jeans and their letterman jackets. Signs of a struggle and some blood were discovered nearby, according to one detective. If you have any tips or ideas on the whereabouts of these young men, please call the tip line below.

“Oh, Hwa… don’t be such a square! We’re just walking to the store for some smokes then back. It’s a ten minute walk!”

Hongjoong skipped forward gleefully to grab the well-worn newspaper from his best friend’s hands. Knowing Seonghwa, he had probably read and reread the morose subject matter a thousand times since the article came out. 

“You know boys around here! They don’t stick around. I’m sure they just hitchhiked outta here down to Cali and forgot to tell their parents. Not sure why you’re so worried about this.” Hongjoong concluded with a tone of finality. 

Truth be told--Hongjoong knew that Seonghwa was going to worry. They had been best friends since they were in diapers, and he always played the role of unwilling protector. Even after they had grown into teenagers then into young adults, Seonghwa still attempted to protect Hongjoong from everything around them. 

Seonghwa shook his head while looking up at the seemingly endless expanse of dark sky above them. It was an unnaturally dark night. He had expected some stars or even the moon for their walk to the store, but fate seemed to have other plans. Those plans? To make Seonghwa look like an idiot in front of Hongjoong, as usual.

Yes… they had been friends since they were in diapers, but it didn’t take long for them to take very different paths socially and academically. Whereas Hongjoong grew into a quick witted, funny, and popular cheerleader for their school’s football team--Seonghwa transformed into a tall, thin spectre of a human that stuck to the classroom and barely ventured elsewhere. 

The other big difference was that Hongjoong had attracted a multitude of suitors at every age, whereas Seonghwa hadn’t even held another person’s hand. Other than his mother, of course. That was completely fine with Seonghwa though, because he only had eyes for one person.

“I just don’t know why you couldn’t wait for the morning, Joong. The police say we should stay home. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” 

Seonghwa’s eyes lingered on Hongjoong’s barely distinguishable features in the darkness of the night. Surely if he can’t see Hongjoong then Hongjoong can’t see his eyes lingering on the outline of his face and body. Not that it ever stopped him any other time. And who could blame him? It was an unseasonably warm September evening, and Hongjoong had decided to just wear his cheerleading uniform home instead of changing in the locker room after the game. 

His chestnut brown curls were pulled back into messy pigtail buns that were just the slightest bit off center. He had recently cut blunt bangs into his hair that stuck out under his dark green headband that kept his hairstyle in place. The headband matched his uniform’s sweater and the pleats on his white skirt that fell just an inch or two above his knee. To finish off the ensemble, he wore spotless, white Keds topped with frilled white ankle socks that accentuated his slim ankles flawlessly.

Seonghwa audibly swallowed as he watched the polyester blend slide like waves over the unblemished and smooth skin of his friend’s thighs. He couldn’t tell if he hated or loved Hongjoong’s new habit of clutching at the fabric of the front of his skirt as he walked. It’s not like he had to pull up his skirts to avoid puddles. It was already unreasonably high to begin with, in Seonghwa’s mind.

He couldn’t see it, but he could almost hear Hongjoong roll his eyes as he huffed out, “What time ya got?” 

“Half past ten.” Seonghwa responded after half a minute of trying to work out the time on his nearly impossible to read wristwatch. 

Hongjoong threw the wrung out newspaper on the ground and stomped on it then grabbed Seonghwa’s hand. “Well then… we better get a move on! Store closes at 11.”

Their town’s convenience store was really only a stone’s throw away, but the distance felt insurmountable when paired with the fear that was gripping Seonghwa’s chest like a vice. There weren’t murders in their town. Plainsville was as small and serene as any town you could imagine. The recent disappearances had only served to render his already weak heart almost useless. How would Hongjoong ever notice him when he could barely walk a mile down the road in the dark without shivering with unease?

Crack. 

Snick.

Thwap.

“Did you hear that?” Seonghwa whispered out as he huddled closer to Hongjoong’s warmth. He glanced down at the other’s face to find wide eyes already looking back up at him. The clouds had parted slightly to allow a sliver of moonlight to fall across Hongjoong’s pristine, unfazed countenance. Seonghwa’s body shivered just a bit more as he watched Hongjoong’s brows draw down into a concerned furrow while wrapping an arm around his own waist. 

“It was just the wind, I’m sure. Let’s keep going.” Hongjoong reassured him but increased his pace nonetheless. 

If it was the wind, that particular element was especially heavy-footed this evening, because it sounded as if every stick or dried leaf in the forest was under attack as they hurriedly paced towards their destination. They could see the blinking glow of the OPEN sign just outside the convenience store. Within a minute, they had rushed past the gas pumps and into the overly warm entryway of the small store. 

“Evening, Hongjoong. Seonghwa. How can I help ya?” 

The man behind the counter appeared older than old. His face held lines that held their own lines. His lips turned up in a perpetual grimace as if he was chewing something bitter, but the two boys knew that he was anything but disagreeable. He had been a part of their lives since they were sporting training wheels. 

“Hiya, Mr. J. Pack of smokes and two pops. Can I snatch a pack of matches?” Hongjoong chirped out as he smiled over the counter. 

“Of course ya can. You still a paper shaker out there for the boys, Hongjoong?”

“Right-o, Mr. J! Wouldn’t miss it for the world. You know I do stunts now? They say they can throw me higher, because I’ve got such a thin figure.”

“As long as you’re eating all three meals, that sounds good to me. You still top of the class, Seonghwa?”

Seonghwa smiled shyly and rubbed at his neck while avoiding eye contact.

“Ah, don’t be shy, Hwa! Tell ‘im about your poem! The one in the papers!” Hongjoong egged him on with a proud smile.

“Yeah. I guess I’m the top of the class. I wrote a poem in last week’s paper. Maybe you saw it? Called “The Moon’s Glow”?”

The man slapped the pack of cigarettes and drinks on the counter and clapped to himself, “That was you? Oh, my wife LOVED that poem. How did it go? Something like… the light’s your eyes… Ahh, I’m the pits with words!” 

Hongjoong laughed excitedly and did a twirl. He stopped abruptly to look over at Seonghwa with a sincere smile. “There is no night without you. There is no reason to grow. The morning sun would grow despondent without the moon’s glow.”

The buzzing of the overhead lights felt like a physical presence skirting along the skin of Seonghwa’s arms as his eyes traced Hongjoong’s face. To hear his poetry quoted aloud was an experience in and of itself, but for it to be dictated by Hongjoong himself was otherworldly. Seonghwa’s fingers nervously pushed up his horn-rimmed glasses as he attempted to look away from the hypnotizing stare of the man in front of him. 

The man at the counter cleared his throat and chuckled softly. “Good poem that was. You must really feel a certain way about someone to be able to write like that, kid.”

Like a house on fire, Seonghwa’s skin roared with heat at the implications the man’s words held.

“Ah, I don’t know. Just an idea I had. How much will it be?”

Another chuckle filled the space between them as he bagged their items. “It’s on me. You boys gotta head home. You know there’s a curfew in place.”

Seonghwa nodded politely at the man as he grabbed the bag and made to leave without looking back at Hongjoong. He held the door and allowed Hongjoong to pass under his arm soundlessly. 

“You be safe out there. I heard some noise down the road the other night, and I can’t help but wonder if it was those poor boys.”

Hongjoong snorted and Seonghwa looked over just in time to see him roll his eyes. 

“Have a good night, Mr. J. Thanks again.” Seonghwa replied and let the door close behind him.

Seonghwa glanced over to find Hongjoong standing alone on the gravel parking area rubbing his own arms to guard himself from the chilled air. His face was awash with a ghastly, washed out blue tone from the streetlamp above him. His eyes reflected the night sky like a canvas doused in watercolor. 

Shaking himself, Seonghwa hurried to Hongjoong’s side and pulled his arm until they were looking at each other. His eyes narrowed as he started, “What was that about, Joong? You’re being awful rude about those boys. They could be hurt!”

Hongjoong exhaled in an exasperated way as he grabbed the bag from Seonghwa’s hand. In a few seconds, he had a cigarette lit and hanging from his lip as he glared in Seonghwa’s direction. “What do you care? You don’t even know ‘em. They were always doing whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted. I’m sure they’re still doing that now.”

Seonghwa coughed as Hongjoong leaned forward and blew a cloud of heavy smoke in his face with a sharp laugh. He spun on his heel and moved to head in the direction of their homes. Down the dark forest lined road with no streetlights or houses.

Seonghwa followed and huffed angrily. He didn’t understand why Hongjoong was being so impassive about this. These were human beings. Boys their age. Nineteen and eighteen is what the newspaper had said. Of course Seonghwa didn’t like them. His mother ensured his decline in social value every day when she placed his pressed slacks and crisp, ivory button down top on the bed next to a shining set of loafers. Pair that with his ever present glasses and suspenders to keep his slacks up (because he couldn’t gain weight to save his life) and it was like blood to sharks. Those football players, bulging and enviable, saw him as practice for the next big game. He couldn’t count the amount of times that he stood in his steam filled bathroom glaring over his shoulder into the mirror to find blotches of green and purple in the shape of a locker door. 

But they were still people.

“Would’ve thought you’d have a little sympathy for them. After all, they are your ilk nowadays.” Seonghwa said in an almost begrudging tone as he caught up with Hongjoong.

Hongjoong stopped right in front of Seonghwa suddenly and unexpectedly. The night was nearly silent as Hongjoong rounded on him without warning. It was still eerily dark, but the moon was now slightly more visible as it dripped like tears along the alabaster vision that was Hongjoong. 

“My ilk? You think those guys are my ilk?” Hongjoong asked in a chillingly low tone. His features seemed almost foreign in that moment. Like the light of the moon was bleaching him of his very essence. “You never seem to understand me. No matter how hard I try. Just because I’m nice to people doesn’t mean that I like them. Just because I’m a cheerleader doesn’t mean I wish well on the people playing the sport. Those guys were--are-- they’re--” Hongjoong began to stutter then rushed forward to glare defiantly up at Seonghwa’s face. Seonghwa gasped as he felt the other man push his chest with an unexpected amount of force. He yelped as his hands scraped the pavement trying to break his fall. 

“Hongjoong?” Seonghwa asked with wide, sad eyes as he pulled his hands up to examine the damage. 

Guilt flashed across Hongjoong’s face like a downpour as he bent at the waist to help Seonghwa stand. All he received was a slapped hand and a disappointed glare.

As Seonghwa stood, he bit out, “Let’s just get home. It’s too late to be out and about.”

They continued along the barely lit path as the trees whipped and creaked around them. Seonghwa cringed with each step as he felt rivulets of blood begin to make their way along his injured palms. Though Hongjoong attempted to grab for his hands multiple times, Seonghwa just clenched his bloodied fists and moved to walk in front of him in silence.

Crunch

Fsst

Fwip

Seonghwa’s head snapped to the treeline as another round of suspiciously lively sounds oozed from the darkness of the forest. He stopped in his tracks as his eyes squinted to focus on what looked like movement from the pines. His back was suddenly warm with Hongjoong’s cowering presence as the other man watched the same spot with unease. 

As if in a dream, Seonghwa watched the trees seem to part with the arrival of a hunched and hobbling form. His heart leapt to his throat as he registered its identity. 

“It-It-It’s them! One of the boys from the paper!” Seonghwa cried out in surprise as he attempted to peel himself away from Hongjoong’s crushing grip from behind.

“Wait, Seong--” Hongjoong started, but Seonghwa had already slipped from his embrace and scurried over to assist the limping form. What he found was a horrorshow and a half as he took in their appearance.

“Heavens… what happened to you?” He said with wide, stunned eyes.

The man was dressed just as the papers had described. Blue jeans and a letterman jacket. But neither were intact or even recognizable. The moon above exposed a horrifying scene. Hair littered with mud and leaves. Dried blood caked from his hairline down to a dreadfully festering wound on his neck that seemed to throb in time with the man’s breaths. A gurgling croak came from the man’s throat as he dropped to his knees at Seonghwa’s feet. His jacket and jeans appeared to be nearly shredded and lined with mud, blood, and other filth.

Hongjoong cried aloud as he watched the bedraggled man grab desperately at Seonghwa’s ankles and drag him down to the cold pavement of the abandoned road. 

At the sound, the man’s eyes snapped up to Hongjoong and narrowed dangerously.

“You fucking--” 

He gritted out as he forced his body up and over in the direction of Hongjoong. His diminutive form seemed almost dwarfed under the presence of the filth encrusted character. Seonghwa watched in horror as he attempted to clamber to his feet. Hongjoong was tackled into the grass to the side of the road by the mangled man and cried to himself as he felt the man’s hands dig into his throat and shoulder like claws. He gasped in disgust as the man stuffed his face into the juncture between his neck and shoulder and laved at his skin with his tongue like a man starved. Both hands wandered lower and pinned the crowded man’s waist to the wet grass below them. 

The filthy figure paused in his ministrations only for a moment to pull back and leer down at the weeping form beneath him and spit out, “I’ll make you pay.”

Hongjoong’s face was streaked with tears and dirt as the man slammed his body down harder into the dirt and leaves. His mouth opened grotesquely and lowered to latch onto the exposed length of Hongjoong’s pallid throat.

His scream tore through the night like a bullet out of a gun, and that was all it took for Seonghwa to launch himself across the short space between them and grab ahold of the attacker and pull with all his strength. It was a futile gesture, and Seonghwa knew it. Over the years, the most exercise his body endured were the activities forced on him at school and the occasional run to hide from the very kind of person that he had just antagonized. 

The limping man wheeled around to glare at Seonghwa, mouth lined with what Seonghwa realized was Hongjoong’s own blood, and barreled towards him with the perfect precision and form of an experienced football player.

Before he could even blink, he was in the same position Hongjoong had just been in. His hands made their way up to cover his face, but it hardly helped to shield him from the barrage of hits that the other man was aiming at his head, neck, and chest. He could hear Hongjoong, as if from faraway, crying and mumbling to himself.

“No no no please don’t. Not like this. Please stop. I can’t do this. I can’t…”

As Seonghwa’s skin tore and bruised under the assault, he realized that it didn’t hold a candle to the flame that was the sadness that gripped his chest as he heard Hongjoong’s desperate wails.

“I made a promise. I don’t want to. I can’t. I can’t. Please don’t make me do this…”

His own tears and blood seemed to choke him as he gasped at the latest hit that landed on one of his ribs. A sharp crack rang out, and he stilled almost entirely at the pain that rushed through him.

His eyes rolled back in his head as he looked up at the nearly starless sky that washed over him. The moon was finally fully visible and glorious in its nearly full form. Illuminating the red, black, and green of the scene that only the three men were spectators to. Red from the blood of all parties involved. Black of the cold and dirty street that they were sprawled across. And green of the trees and Hongjoong’s torn sweater. To ignore the pain that was setting his skin aflame, he thought back to his own poem that he had penned on a night much like this night while thinking of the man just a few feet away from him.

Am I but a planet destined to orbit you from the deep black and blue?

Set astray when scarlet rays make haste and paint with bright lights too?

Laymen write and sing and chant that we shant be friend just foe.

Like ocean to desert or fire to ice that repel and retract and slow.

There is no night without you.

There is no reason to grow. 

The morning sun would grow despondent without the moon’s glow.

As Seonghwa’s mind seemed to cloud from the pain and departing adrenaline, he repeated the verse as if it was a lifeline. His lips cracked with drying blood as he whispered the words to himself like a hymn. In his hazed state, a foreign sound seemed to join his feverish whispers. 

Crack

Glop

Crack

Hiss

Schlep

Pop

The sounds intermingled with Seonghwa’s own choking gasps and Hongjoong’s pitiful whines and whimpers. Seonghwa could barely see the small male past the form hovering over him. The hairs along his arms tingled and stood at attention as a voice sounded from the direction he knew Hongjoong was in.

“Get off him.”

The man above him stilled at the commanding tone of the voice. Seonghwa stilled further as well. The voice was a distorted layering of Hongjoong’s own high tone with a low, growling tone. It was like nothing he had ever heard in his life, and it chilled him to his core.

Made eerier by the wet and sickening crunching sounds from before, the monstrous distortion of Hongjoong’s voice continued, “I gave you so many chances. You kept hurting him. You kept putting your filthy, disgusting paws on him. I told you what would happen. But You. Kept. Touching. What. Is. Not. Yours.”

Each word was punctuated by a sickening, wet tearing and crunching sound. The final word was emphasized with a low, pained growl that slammed into Seonghwa’s chest like a physical force.

The night seemed darker to Seonghwa as he attempted to wheeze around the horrid pain in his flank. He attempted to focus past the black spots that were impacting his vision. The man above him rolled off of Seonghwa and scooted away from him with haste. Seonghwa could make out the look of abject horror on the dirty man’s features as he backed as far away from Seonghwa as he could manage while still seated and scooting. Seonghwa attempted to look over in Hongjoong’s direction, but his head was suddenly being directed away from the other man’s direction. Two soft and fur lined appendages slid down from his brows to his eyelids in an attempt to manually close his eyes.

The miserable mangling of Hongjoong’s voice was close to his ear this time as it uttered out, “Please don’t open your eyes.”

He didn’t open his eyes.

But there is no way to close your ears.

His face was wet with tears and mucus as he choked and cried to cover up the sounds that filled the night air.

He recognized the garbled voice of his attacker as it yowled and shook with a fear so primordial that it nearly made Seonghwa retch. If the wet tearing and crunching sounds from earlier were daunting, the sounds that were coming from the other man now were downright gruesome. 

A tearing sound. A wheezing cough. A wet slap. A shuddering yelp. 

Seonghwa curled on his side away from the revolting sounds and clutched at his head to block out the cacophony of dread. 

Then everything went dark.

But it wasn’t dark for long.

In under a minute, he became conscious of the fact that he was moving. He groaned and coughed as his body made its discomfort known to him. His eyes shot open to see the night sky moving above him. He felt his back slide along the cold grass as he was dragged away from the road by his ankles. 

“Wh-Where…” He attempted to speak but broke into a fit of pained coughing as his injured flank responded to his involuntary movements. He tried to focus on the form in front of him as they dragged him through the tree line and further away from the barely visible lights of town.

In a few minutes, it seemed like they had made it to their destination. Seonghwa’s body was trembling with fear and pain as he was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. He had his eyes clenched shut from the pain for most of the journey, but he opened them now to figure out where he was.

It was unbelievably dark and cold in the damp space. There was only a sliver of moonlight illuminating the exit of the small area that he was tucked into. He tensed as the small slice of moonlight was suddenly blotted out leaving him completely blind. The room suddenly felt unbearably hot as anxiety pooled in his blood and left him winded. He heard a low sniffling to his right and reached out in its direction to feel for his captor. His heart stuttered as his fingers sunk into coarse, wiry...fur? He dragged himself closer despite his mind’s pleas to cringe away and pulled his other hand up to the mass of trembling fur. Forcing himself up into a kneeling position, he slid his hands up, up, up through the mess of fur tangled with wet and sticky residue. Finally, his hands clamped onto what felt like a head. Still blind but desperate for answers, he traced his fingers along hot streams of wet tears along the sharp but fur lined cheekbones of the creature in front of him. Then his hands were looping up and over pointed ears that protruded from the top of its head. As his fingers slid down to grip at the base of either ear and stroke gently, he heard a soft, shuddering gasp leave the being in front of him.

“Please don’t…” The familiar yet stilted voice shook as it made its way to Seonghwa’s ears.

As the words floated in his ears and sunk into his auditory cortex, his fingers tightened around the fur-covered protrusions more tightly. 

His throat was raw and almost completely unrecognizable as he whispered, “Joong? I-Is that you?” 

The body in his hands seemed to convulse under a fresh onslaught of tears, and his heart clenched in despair. 

“Joongie… it is you. Hey… it’s ok. Can you understand me?”

It was still so dark, and Seonghwa was running purely on instinct at this moment. He couldn’t even see his own hand in front of his face if he tried. He just pushed his face into the soft expanse in front of him and wrapped his arms around the middle of the shadowed figure and exhaled shakily. Before he knew it, his eyes couldn’t stay open any longer and sleep enveloped him like an old friend that he was so glad to see.

***

When Hongjoong was just five years old, his parents made him sit down in the living room of their quaint, suburban home for a talk. The talk, to be specific. Well, not quite THE talk in the way that you’re thinking. But in their family, it was very much the talk. 

His mom took the lead in explaining the situation very simply. His family had a gift. Though some considered it a curse, his parents firmly believed otherwise. It was called a hold vére . The blood of the moon. It was hard to know when the mutation became present in their family’s bloodline, but it always reared its head between the ages of 16 and 20. 

He listened with wide eyes as his mother detailed some of the perks and the drawbacks of living life with their “gift”. First and foremost, the perks. He would be more advanced than his peers in many aspects especially the closer they got to a full moon. It was like the moon’s power enhanced everything that made him special. He would be stronger, faster, and even smarter than most people around him. His body had self healing properties too which really came in handy with his tendency to get into scraps with local boys when he caught them picking on his best friend.

The downside was that every full moon--he would have no choice but to endure the excruciating process of shifting and rearranging all of his bones and flesh to the shape of his blood’s real image. A bipedal wolflike creature that mostly followed his instincts while keeping limited semblance of his true personality. 

“It’s not like the books or movies, Hongjoong. You’ll be in control. It’s not like you’ll suddenly crave human flesh or want to kill everything that moves. You’ll just...run on a different frequency. If you’re hungry, you’ll hunt. If you’re happy, you’ll play. If you’re…” His mom stopped at this point and glanced shyly at his father across the room with a blush on her face. “Well, let’s just say--you’ll act out your more baser urges in this form and around the time you take it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You should be proud of our blood.”

And he was proud of his blood. 

But there were times when he hated it. The first time that he shifted was right after his 16th birthday, and he wished that he had never been born. It really wasn’t anything like books or movies described it. His mom was right about that. It was so much worse.

When he realized what was happening, he ran as fast as he could to the outskirts of town and broke the tree line like his life depended on it. And it kind of did. It didn’t matter how proud he was of his blood. There was no way the trigger happy yokels would play nice with a hulking wolf creature that could barely control its impulses when under pressure. He was about half a mile into the forest when he collapsed to his knees against his will. There was a fine mist falling from the sky that night, and the wind lashed at his skin like the tip of a whip. The lashing was nothing compared to what began to build at the top of his spine within a minute of falling to the earth. 

It was like a bolt of lightning struck from the knobby protrusion of his spine at the base of his neck to his tailbone with no remorse. From there, the horrid pain seemed to light up every nerve in his body like a coordinated attack. His body lurched forward, face slamming into the ground and fingers clutching helplessly at the wet leaves below him, and he began to shift. He used every ounce of strength in his body to turn his head to the right and watch as a pair of sharp, curved claws burst from the skin of his fingertips in a fine spray of blood. The skin of his arms seemed to split at an unseen seam to expose the tough, fur lined limbs underneath. 

His spine straightened and jerked against his volition, and he shuddered wordlessly as he felt the skin of his back split just like his arms to allow his real form to burst forth. From his fingers to his toes, all he felt was wretched pain that lit up every nerve in his body as the transformation took place. In either an act of pity or torture, his neck and head were always the last to transform. The serene night air was infiltrated by the obscene sounds of wet cracking and slapping as his face and neck shifted and torqued to finish the abhorrent scene that was a boy transformed against his will.

His morose howl could be heard for miles that first time.

He knows, because Seonghwa ran up to him the next morning with eyes as wide as saucers.

“Did you hear it? The wolf? I was taking the trash out last night, and I heard it with my own ears, Joong!” 

Hongjoong’s mask of indifference slid into place like he was just a well oiled machine. He laughed out loud and nudged the excited boy with his shoulder and said, “Yeah, sure! A wolf! There hasn’t been wolves in this area for years, ya loon!”

“Oh… well, I really love wolves, so I just thought...but yeah--that would be stupid, huh?”

His chest still aches to think about the downtrodden face that Seonghwa had pulled as he mocked him. It wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t allowed to tell his friend anything. Though he was dying to tell him everything.

Yes… he was proud of his blood.

But sometimes… It embarrassed him. 

Like his mom mentioned so many years ago--his instincts would roar to life the closer he got to a full moon leaving him hungry and restless and ready for any kind of action. God help the popular guys in school if he caught them within 20 feet of Seonghwa, he’d leave them in a pile on their knees begging him for forgiveness which he would never grant. This left him in an interesting spot socially. He had always wanted to be a cheerleader, and it was easy to get a spot on the squad with half the football players paralyzed with fear at the thought of him not being accepted. 

This led to misunderstandings with Seonghwa that always tore at his heart though. His friend was convinced that they would stop being friends. That he wasn’t good enough for Hongjoong now that he was one of the “popular kids''. This couldn’t be further from the truth though.

In fact, the main reason why he was embarrassed of his blood was the other side of the coin when it came to his instincts. As the full moon drew closer, Hongjoong was filled with a desire that most young people were very familiar with but really couldn’t even come close to understanding. His limbs were leaden; his blood aflame from just a brief smile from his best friend. His stomach clenched and turned at a mere brush of fingers along his arm. There was almost no way to describe the painfully desperate urges that shot like arcs of lightning along every inch of his body during these times. To be simple, there was nothing that he wanted more during these times than to feel love. To be blunt and downright crude, his brain and body wanted only to be bred or to breed, and the torture that this mindset put him through was like nothing else he had experienced in his life thus far. 

He never acted on these impulses. God only knows how Seonghwa would respond to what he became during this time. But his sheets and pillow cases would probably never forgive him for those unbearable nights in his younger years.

And, of course , he was proud of his blood.

But sometimes… it horrified him.

“I’m sick and tired of that little queer and his pretty little boyfriend frolickin’ around actin’ like they own the place. It’s about time we show them who really runs the school.”

Hongjoong had decided to walk home from the game last Friday instead of taking up his parent’s offer of a ride. It was a nice night, and he felt like he never got to enjoy the evening air anymore.

Looking back, he really wishes that he would’ve just taken the ride.

“Oh man… that prissy little bitch always shows his claws when we smear that skinny boy he’s always hangin’ off of. It’s disgusting. What did you have in mind?”

Hongjoong recognized the two brainless jocks as Ryan Duffy and Blaine Jeremy. They were shoeins for the state college scholarship with their impeccable athleticism. Obviously not for their intelligence. 

Hongjoong cleared his throat as he caught up to them. “Yeah, Ryan… what DID you have in mind?”

The pair gasped and nearly fell into the grass lining the dark road they were walking along.

“You some kinda stalker or something, Hongjoong? Didn’t think we were your type with the way you’re always following that skinny freak around like a bitch in heat.” The shorter of the two men spat at him.

“Ah, very original. You know… two men can be close to each other without it being homo or whatever you’re afraid of it being. Unless that’s the issue here.”

Hongjoong caught up entirely with the pair and stopped right in front of them with a glare. Voice dripping with thinly veiled disdain, he continued, “Maybe you’re just upset that we’re close to each other and not you.” 

At the last two words, Hongjoong pushed a manicured finger into the taller of the two males’ chests.

The man’s face contorted in disgusted rage as he pushed Hongjoong to the ground in front of him. 

“I’m no fag. You shut your mouth!” He growled out as he glared down at the man at his feet.

“Oh! It seems I’ve touched a nerve. What’s the matter? Daddy doesn’t want you kissing boys?”

Hongjoong supposes he should have anticipated the strike to his face that came, but he couldn’t have known that the boot that the other man was wearing was steel-toed.

He cried out as his head whipped backwards leaving him sprawled on his back on the pavement with blood trickling down both of his cheeks from his shattered nose.

He could just barely make out the forms of the two men above him as the blood began to crawl along his cheekbones and into his eyes. He choked out a laugh that was wet with the blood that was now collecting in his mouth and throat. He coughed and wheezed aloud as he felt another kick aimed at his side this time. Within seconds, both men seemed to decide to make Hongjoong their designated dummy for field goal practice. He could take it. He would normally fight back, but he knew better than to push himself so close to the full moon. There was no saying what he was capable of in that state.

At some point, the pair seemed to tire and decided to leave him gasping on the road alone. 

It would’ve been fine if they would’ve just kept walking.

But Blaine turned around and made his way back to Hongjoong’s immobile form and kneeled down right next to his head to whisper, “I’m no faggot, but maybe I will give your skinny little bitch a visit tomorrow. See if I can give him everything you can’t.”

Red of the blood.

Black of the road.

Green of the trees as they whipped around them.

He woke up aching and tired in his bed with a massive blank spot in his memory from the night before. It wasn’t until he dragged himself into school on Monday morning that his heart nearly stopped from the fear that squeezed it incessantly. 

Have You Seen Us?

The faces of Ryan and Blaine stared back at him from a photocopied flyer on the blackboard. 

It was the talk of the town. As the week progressed and neither of them surfaced, their parents grew increasingly desperate in their searches. Hongjoong’s stomach felt raw with the guilt that was plaguing him. He couldn’t remember a thing. He just remembered Blaine’s final words then colors then nothing.

So yes… he was scared of his blood, but he had to keep Seonghwa safe.

His mother’s final words during her speech that morning so many years ago echoed in his mind like a protective mantra that guarded him from his own horrible misdeeds.

“There’s one more thing that you must understand, Hongjoong. You know your best friend Seonghwa?” Hongjoong’s smile finally returned at the thought of his best friend, and he nodded excitedly. His mom attempted to smile but it was quickly concealed by a concerned glance as she continued, “Seonghwa has a hold vére running through his veins too.”

His smile seemed to double at his mom’s confession, but she quickly gripped his hands in hers and shook her head. She started, “You must never tell him. I mentioned earlier that some people see our blood as a curse, remember?”

Hongjoong’s eyes were wide and unblinking as he nodded at his mother again.

“Mr. and Mrs. Park are those kinds of people. They didn’t have any option when they were growing up, so they both go through the change every full moon, but they will not allow Seonghwa to go through it. They’re taking him to a doctor that has found a way to suppress his wolf.”

Hongjoong nodded along dumbly. He barely understood any of the talk at such a young age, but as he got older, everything started to slide into place.

He recalls the first time that he watched through the bathroom door as Seonghwa loaded a syringe with a foreign substance and injected it into the skin of his own soft tummy with a pinched expression. He was scared of the sight but then glanced out the window at the almost full moon to realize that this must be what he used to keep his wolf away. He left shortly after, much to Seonghwa’s disappointment, to go home and pace in his room for hours. He was embarrassed to admit that he wasn’t very in control the next night when he transformed. And if there were a few dead deer littering the woods the next morning, he really couldn’t be held accountable.

***

So that’s how Hongjoong found himself shivering in just his filthy and torn cheerleading skirt under a fully unconscious and blazing hot Seonghwa after their encounter with Blaine. Or was it Ryan? Hongjoong could hardly straighten his thoughts out enough to care. They were both the same to him. 

“Competition?” A horrible voice said in the back of his mind. But he knew that wasn’t quite right. 

Hongjoong attempted to look around past the body that was draped over him. It must have still been late evening going into the early morning hours, because the cave that he had found was almost entirely dark. He stretched and groaned as he felt every inch of his body that was newly mended in the darkness of the night. There was something both rejuvenating and achy about the way his body was created anew after each transformation. The crazy part for him was that it wasn’t even an actual full moon last night. It was very close, but he had never fully transformed on an off night. His body must have just known that it had to be done to keep Seonghwa safe.

Hongjoong became conscious of the heavy breathing of the man above him and halted his own movements. Seonghwa was hot. Too hot. And he was nearly panting above him. 

“Seonghwa? Can you hear me?” Hongjoong asked fearfully. Seonghwa’s body seemed to be shaking and twisting like he was in indescribable pain. The night before, when Seonghwa fell asleep, Hongjoong had licked at as many of his wounds as he could reach to attempt to clean them, but he couldn’t be sure that there wasn’t something internal that was injured. “Hey! I need you to wake up and talk to me. What’s happening?”

Seonghwa responded with a low groan and a drawn out mixture of Hongjoong’s name and multiple expletives. He must have been in a lot of pain to lose control like this. Even in their worst scrapes, Seonghwa almost never cursed and if he did--he always blushed and stammered and apologized afterwards.

“I’ll get you help. I’m so sorry, Seonghwa. You wait here.” Hongjoong whispered through tears as he attempted to maneuver his way out from under the heavy weight of the other man. His desperate scrambling and adjustments forced Seonghwa to collapse even more on top of him with a huff.

In the scant light of the space around them, Seonghwa’s pupils looked huge in his heavy eyelids. His mouth was ajar and almost dripping with wetness. With one final wiggle, Seonghwa’s chest lined with Hongjoong’s and his lower half slotted between Hongjoong’s now spread thighs. In a low and desperate voice, Seonghwa whined out, “Hongjoong? ”

Oh my God.

Flushed from head to toe, Hongjoong gasped as he realized that Seonghwa wasn’t in pain at all. Nope… that firm and thrumming length seemingly burning a hole into the clothed expanse of his stomach was certainly NOT the body’s normal response to pain. 

“Uh, Hwa…I th-think you might be confused.” He mumbled out as he felt the other man’s hand drop lazily to the middle of his outer thigh and tightly grip. Hongjoong bit his lip to keep control and not respond to the frantic movements of the body above him. He felt Seonghwa’s forehead drop to meet his as he moved his hips forward experimentally. Seonghwa moaned low in his throat as his eyes rolled back at the sensation. “Like...really confused. Seonghwa, you have to stop.” He muttered while attempting to move from under the other man again.

Hongjoong was startled from his attempts by the man above him growling at him. Like actually growling. Oh, so that’s how this was going to be. In an instant, Hongjoong called on all of his strength to flip their positions with Seonghwa now pinned to the floor between his own spread knees. The waistband of his skirt had been pushed up just over his belly button and the pleats of his skirt fell to just above his midthigh as he glared down at Seonghwa. 

He gritted his teeth and attempted to focus past the feeling of Seonghwa’s blazing body below him. He went to speak and felt Seonghwa’s hands fly to his hips; his thin fingers bunching up the fabric of his skirt as he was dragged down against Seonghwa’s lower half again. He growled twice as loud as Seonghwa as he gripped the hands at his hips and forced them down to the ground above the other man’s head.

“Seonghwa, no!” He said with a depth to his voice that he very rarely let slip out. It had its intended effect as he was met with a very still Seonghwa that looked up at him in complete confusion.

“What is happ--Where’s your shirt? You must be so cold. Are you okay, Hongjoong? What is going on? Oh my god...what did I do?” He fired out like a mad man as he attempted to cover Hongjoong’s exposed chest with his hands to give him some semblance of dignity. 

“Oh, like you’ve never seen my chest before! Calm down, weirdo.” He laughed, still blushing, while pushing Seonghwa’s hands away from his chest. Hongjoong remained in Seonghwa’s lap as he asked, “How are you feeling?”

The man below him tilted his head back and groaned. “I feel weird. I’m so hot. What time is it?”

Hongjoong grabbed Seonghwa’s wrist and pulled it close to his face to check the time. 

“Either very early or very late, depending on how you view it. Sun’s still not out. What do you mean you feel weird?”

Seonghwa took a breath and swallowed visibly before saying, “It’s really weird. Not sure I can explain it.”

Hongjoong, still in Seonghwa’s lap, leaned down and laid his head on the other man’s chest and let his arms flop to his sides. “Well, try to explain it.”

“It’s like… my bones are moving around. Like my blood is pumping louder. Am I dying? It’s so strange. I remember getting really hurt last night, but I don’t actually hurt. I just feel… wrong?”

Hongjoong sat up abruptly and nearly toppled out of Seonghwa’s lap. He grabbed Seonghwa’s shirt and pulled him up into a sitting position so they were nearly nose to nose then anxiously asked, “When was the last time you took your medicine, Seonghwa?”

It was quiet for almost a minute before Seonghwa looked anywhere but at Hongjoong and mumbled out, “--take it.”

Hongjoong narrowed his eyes and grabbed Seonghwa’s chin to make him look into his eyes. “Do you want to repeat that?”

Seonghwa glared at him and huffed out, “I said, I didn’t take it! I stopped taking it because it makes me feel like shit. It makes me feel sad all the time. Like there’s something wrong with me. I feel weak. It’s like it’s draining me of who I am, Hongjoong!”

Seonghwa was breathing heavily by the time he finished; the front of his shirt rubbing against the skin of Hongjoong’s exposed chest with every irate huff. 

“I know what I am, Hongjoong. What you are.” 

Hongjoong froze and held his breath.

“I don’t blame you for not telling me. I know my parents didn’t want me to find out, but are they complete idiots? Did they really think they could trust a teenager to always remember to take their medicine? What about when I go to college and start pulling all-nighters? I’m just glad that I forgot to take it before then.” He finished while looking right at Hongjoong with wide and shining eyes.

“When--I mean--How long?” Hongjoong asked while biting his lip nervously. 

“Just a month ago. Found out the very hard way. My parents came home from their comfortable and fun little romp in the woods to a house torn to shreds and me sobbing in pain on the kitchen floor.”

Hongjoong’s eyes welled up immediately at the thought of his best friend going through it alone. It was hard for Hongjoong to go through it alone, but he at least knew what was happening. His heart felt raw as he leaned forward and pressed his face into Seonghwa’s chest and wrapped his arms around him.

“I’m so sorry. I wish I could’ve been there for you. You must’ve been so scared.”

Hongjoong felt Seonghwa’s chuckle rumble in his chest as he continued clinging to him. 

“It wasn’t great, but I’m getting used to it now. But Hongjoong… I have to admit something to you.”

Hongjoong leaned back to look at Seonghwa who was looking increasingly nervous as he attempted to start speaking.

“Well, so I guess… and I mean… I don’t know--”

“Oh my god, Hwa… spit it out already!”

“I was there. Last Friday. When Ryan and Blaine got...um-- when they--”

Hongjoong finally extricated himself from Seonghwa’s lap to push himself back towards the cave’s wall and stare over at him in confusion.

“Y-You what?! Did you, um, see...what… I mean--what happened?”

“You really don’t remember?”

Hongjoong pulled his hands up to rub at his arms for warmth and tilted his head in confusion. Seonghwa, noticing his discomfort, began unbuttoning his shirt in a hurry. 

“What are y--” He started but Seonghwa was already removing his shirt and forcing it into Hongjoong’s hands. He was left in his blood stained undershirt (a loose fitting tank top) and torn slacks. 

“Just put it on. I’ll explain what really happened last Friday night.”

Hongjoong slid on Seonghwa’s button down and listened intently as the gaps in his memories were filled.

***

When the phone rang that Friday night, Seonghwa almost ignored it. He was very deep into his latest True Adventures Magazine, and he felt like he never got time to himself to do what he wanted anymore. But his mother’s incessant manners training seemed to kick in on the phone’s third ring, and he was running down the steps like he was being chased.

“Seonghwa, dear. Hongjoong refuses to ride home with us, but it’s so chilly out tonight. Could you ride your bike over and give him a ride after the game?” 

“Of course, Mrs. Kim. I’ll head over right now. I’ll even bring him a jacket. I know he always forgets to take one.”

“Oh, you’re just the sweetest, Seonghwa! Hongjoong is so lucky to have such a nice boy in his life.”

As they hung up the phone, Seonghwa scoffed at the comment. Nice boy. If only that was what someone like Hongjoong wanted. He really felt like Hongjoong was pulling away this month. To be fair, he always felt that way, but it was especially bad this month. It felt like every time Seonghwa looked in his direction that he was greeted with a stiff nod and his friend hurrying off in the opposite direction.

When he arrived at the school, he realized that the game had already ended and everyone was heading home. He rode his bike around the perimeter to see if he could spot Hongjoong, but he was nowhere to be found. 

Probably got a ride with one of the football players. They’re so close after all.

He shook his head to rid it of the negative thoughts and started pedaling in the direction that Hongjoong generally took when he walked home. It was so cold tonight. Why did Hongjoong do things like this? Did he want to get sick? Seonghwa was just considering turning back for the night when his eyes latched onto some things on the road up ahead.

Did someone hit a deer and just leave it there?

He sped up his pedaling to reach the amorphous blobs up ahead and stopped in his tracks with a gasp when he registered what he was seeing.

Ryan and Blaine from the football team were motionless and covered in mud and blood. 

Hongjoong almost completely undressed with a mouth and hands covered in blood.

Scratch that--claws. Claws covered in blood.

“You’re like me…” Seonghwa whispered to the groaning and barely conscious form of Hongjoong in front of him. Seonghwa was quick to jump off his bike and wrap his extra jacket around Hongjoong’s shoulders. He pulled Hongjoong and his bike to the side of the road and looked around to make sure there were no cars in sight before walking back out to the middle of the road. Bile rose in Seonghwa’s throat as he realized that both men were shredded almost beyond recognition. His nausea multiplied when he realized that this had to be Hongjoong’s handiwork. What could have possibly happened here that led to Hongjoong losing control in such a public place?

He took a deep breath and steeled his nerves. Hongjoong needed him. He knew what Hongjoong would do if the situations were reversed. He removed his jacket then slid off his button down shirt and placed them on the ground next to Hongjoong then moved back over to the other men. He gritted his teeth and cracked his knuckles then got to work.

It took almost an hour and a half, and Seonghwa’s body was wet with sweat and grime, but he managed to pull both boys as far into the woods as he could. He glared down at their bodies then further past them down a hill that led to the river that ran under the main bridge in town. With one final determined huff, he pushed the bodies so they rolled down the hill and into the river. As fast as he could manage, he ran back to Hongjoong’s side. The man had pulled Seonghwa’s jacket up over his head and was snoring on the side of the road like it was his bed. It took a lot of maneuvering and balancing, but Seonghwa managed to ride his bike back home with Hongjoong completely unconscious in his lap. He had already rinsed a lot of the blood off with river water, so Hongjoong’s parents just laughed when they saw the taller of the two carrying their unconscious son up the steps to his bedroom.

“I don’t know how they didn’t smell it on you. The blood. It was everywhere. Both your blood and their blood. But I’m just glad they didn’t say anything.”

Hongjoong was stunned into silence and barely able to make eye contact with Seonghwa as his story unfolded. 

“They weren’t dead. They were just injured. But I didn’t want--I wasn’t really thinking. Just wanted to keep you safe.”

Hongjoong’s tears continued as he mumbled out, “Oh, Hwa… I can’t believe you had to do that because of m--”

“Don’t. I don’t feel guilty. I thought I would. But there wasn’t a moment from finding you on that road to tucking you into bed that night that I felt guilt. If anything, I felt--” He stopped and cleared his throat. His eyes settled anywhere but on Hongjoong as he deliberated on how to finish his sentence.

Hongjoong slowly moved closer to Seonghwa until their knees touched. “You felt what?”

Seonghwa swallowed and Hongjoong’s eyes latched onto the movement of his throat like his eyes were bound by marionette strings. 

“I felt good. I felt accomplished. You were hurt, and I knew they had hurt you. I could smell it. It made me sick. Pushing their disgusting bodies into the river made me feel so good. Protecting you like that.”

Seonghwa’s chest was heaving as he finished; head hanging low as his hands clutched at the fabric of his bunched up pants where he was kneeling almost in prayer. 

“And now?” Hongjoong asked as he moved even closer. A knee silently sliding between Seonghwa’s two bent knees. 

Seonghwa’s breath caught as he moved his hands from his eyes to watch the folds of Hongjoong’s mussed skirt fall over his clenched thigh. He felt Hongjoong’s breath inching closer to his face as he mumbled out, “And now what?”

Hongjoong was nearly nose to nose with him at this point as he lowered his voice and muttered back, “Now how do you feel?”

Seonghwa’s throat clenched with a suppressed groan as he felt Hongjoong’s left knee rub just slightly between his legs as he finished the question. “I f-f-feel just fine. Because you’re here with me. And we’re safe.”

Seonghwa could have pictured this night ending in a lot of different ways, but Hongjoong bodily shoving him to the ground of the pitch black cave and straddling him again was not high on that list. His fingers gripped firmly at the hips covered by the pleated skirt at Hongjoong’s waist as he sighed out, “Hongjoong?”

Hongjoong’s eyes nearly glowed in the dark as he laughed abruptly and leaned down until he was face to face with Seonghwa. “We can have a very long conversation later, but Seonghwa… can I please please please kiss you right now?”

Seonghwa’s eyes latched onto as many details as his eyes could muster in the dim lighting and breathed out shakily. Hongjoong’s hair had shaken loose of their buns and was now falling in sweet mahogany waves down past his chin. He had slid on Seonghwa’s white buttoned shirt but never got around to buttoning it so his skin from chin to mid torso was fully on display under the garment. Finally, his plump and parted thighs were almost entirely visible under the pleated skirt that had been rucked up to where his ribs started. 

He didn’t hesitate for even a second before sitting up entirely, eyes still fully focused on Hongjoong’s, and pressing their lips together gently. His eyes fell closed as he relaxed into the unfamiliar process of kissing. It was comforting to learn that Hongjoong kissed just like he did everything else--with enthusiasm and utmost care. Seonghwa felt like he was being injected with years of true love with just the smallest press of lips. 

If only he knew that Hongjoong was nearly shaking with the moon’s pull and his own decade long infatuation that had grown into something so intense that it was almost palpable in the small space around them. He tried so hard to hold in the instinct that was screaming at him to claim. Claim. Claim. Bite. Mount. Submit. 

It made his head spin with want and confusion, because this was Seonghwa. His human nature was screaming at him to wait and to lay Seonghwa down after months of courting and soft kisses and wine and flowers. But his animalistic nature was telling him that Seonghwa had always been his and they were only delaying the inevitable. 

Seonghwa gasped and cried out as Hongjoong’s animalistic side won the battle. 

Hongjoong pressed his back to the cold floor again and dropped Seonghwa’s shirt to the ground behind them. He looped his left leg over Seonghwa’s hip, straddling him again, and pushed his loose tank top up to his chin to expose the skin of his chest. In a move both feral and endearing, Hongjoong leaned down and rubbed the side of his face along the soft expanse of his tummy and chest in smooth, long movements. When he seemed satisfied with his work, he crept up to place another soft kiss to Seonghwa’s lips then smiled down at him. 

“You seem awfully calm right now.” He said through pouted lips as he leaned down to kiss along his friend’s jaw down to his earlobe. His teeth latched onto the lobe with care; tongue poking out occasionally to taste and probe at the flesh in an alternating fashion.

“Ah--ahh… I don’t know… don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Another firm suck along his ear pulled a low and pleasured hum from his chest as he continued, “Want so much. ‘M scared.”

Hongjoong kissed back up to his lips. Then his nose. Then each eyelid. Before pulling back and smiling down at him with glittering eyes filled with devotion. 

Hongjoong’s giggle trickled along the tense mood between the two as he placed another kiss on Seonghwa’s cheek. “Then just follow your instincts. I’m not scared at all.”

If his mind wasn’t so unbelievably fogged by the hormones wading in his bloodstream en masse, Hongjoong might’ve been scared of the almost savage growl that ripped from Seonghwa as he unceremoniously flipped Hongjoong over onto his stomach. But he was completely enthralled by his hormones so all he felt was unbridled curiosity and titillation at the almost violent act.

Hongjoong couldn’t see anything due to the darkness, but his hearing felt fine tuned to the sounds around him. He listened intently at the sounds happening behind him as he ground his hips into the ground covered by his skirt in anticipation. A belt clanking and falling to the ground. Clothes rustling and flying erratically. Huffs and groans from Seonghwa himself as he came up behind Hongjoong again.

The darkness in the room and the erratic jerkiness of Seonghwa’s actions left Hongjoong dazed from the spontaneity of every movement. His heart pounded in his chest as he finally felt the heat of Seonghwa’s body hovering over his shaking frame. His legs were pushed apart to leave him laying in a position much like a prone snow angel. Two hands wrapped around his ankles and roughly dragged him backwards until his thighs were hanging on either side of Seonghwa’s hips and his pelvis was almost entirely aligned with Seonghwa’s. 

He bit his lip as he felt those same hands slide to his calves in a soothing, digging motion like an impromptu massage. He groaned and wriggled as the fingers dug into his tense muscles. A sudden and sharp slap to the back of one of his thighs halted his movements immediately. After a long minute, he felt the hands move slowly to the back of his thighs. More pressure was added there as the gentle massaging continued. Hongjoong’s chest seemed almost too full as he felt Seonghwa’s hard length twitch below him in response to his soft sighs and whimpers. 

His breathing stopped when he felt the hands move up to grip at each of his cheeks and dig in. Those fingers that he had watched construct Lego sets and grip the handlebars of their matching bikes and climb trees behind their homes. They were moving along the skin and muscles of his lower half like conscious and educated individual entities that lived to calm and please him.

While one hand continued gripping at the soft muscles of Hongjoong’s bottom, the other hand slid up along his spine to grip at his neck like you’d hold a puppy to calm it down. 

“Eurghh--oh god…” Hongjoong cried out as his limbs loosened further. His mind went even fuzzier at the strange sensation that being gripped like that inspired in him. Hongjoong’s voice was high and breathy as he felt the hand on his behind slide below him. He felt Seonghwa grip at his own arousal and pull it between the small space left between their lower halves.

He bit into his lip as he felt and heard the sound of Seonghwa tapping his length against his inner thighs on each side. Hand still pressing down on his neck, Seonghwa slid his cock smoothly between the mounds of Hongjoong’s rear end. With one hand holding the cheeks together over his member, he slid forward and nearly cried out at the warm sensation. 

“Oh my G--Hongjoong… you’re so--ughh…” He gritted out with effort after a particularly smooth thrust. His other hand slid from Hongjoong’s neck to slide up into his hair and roughly pull while he continued jerking forward and backward. 

Hongjoong was gasping along and attempting to rub himself against Seonghwa to no avail. Just as he was finally getting close enough to his leg for friction, Seonghwa stopped abruptly and gasped softly. 

“Hongjoong…” Seonghwa’s voice was almost completely unfamiliar in its rough and coarse tone as he moaned out his name reverently. “Hongjoong--is this--are you supposed to--”

Seonghwa’s fingers slid alongside his member and rubbed at the other man’s entrance before withdrawing again. Hongjoong gasped as he was flipped over onto his back to stare up at Seonghwa’s wide, curious eyes again.

“What?” He asked through a throat nearly glued shut with arousal.

Seonghwa leaned over him, chest to chest, and pulled his pointer, middle finger, and thumb up between them. Light had just started to filter in through the cave entrance from the morning sun, so Hongjoong merely gulped as he watched Seonghwa’s hypnotized gaze stick to his fingers rubbing a wet, creamy film around like a soothing balm. His eyes widened substantially when he watched Seonghwa dip the two fingers into his mouth and groan aloud.

He cried out in shock when he felt Seonghwa scramble down his body, push his knees up nearly to his chest, and slide his finger against his clenching hole again. His head tilted in confusion at the easy slide of the finger breaching his entrance. He leaned forward on his elbows and glanced down to find Seonghwa withdrawing his finger to suck it again.

“Seonghwa, that’s filthy. What on earth are you doin--hrmph-urghh--” His mouth was filled with fingers before he could finish the statement. He groaned around the fingers as the flavor hit his tastebuds and lit up every part of his brain with arousal.

He sucked at the digit as he felt Seonghwa’s other hand fall between his legs to gather more of the unexpected wetness. “You’re smart and pretty and strong and cool and you produce some kind of ambrosia when you’re fired up. Joong, you’re no wolf. You’re an angel. Absolutely perfect.” 

Hongjoong tilted his head to the side to force the fingers out of his mouth and groan as two fingers breached his entrance again. “I don’t care how good it tastes… you better not take those fingers out of me again or I’ll show you just how strong I am, Seonghwa.”

Hongjoong’s mouth snapped shut as Seonghwa’s teeth sunk into the doughy flesh of his inner thigh while experimentally pumping his fingers in and out of him. Hongjoong’s legs shook as the fingers seemed to probe, separate, and dip in ways that he couldn’t anticipate. The small area was overflowing with groans and yips and sighs as two fingers became three then four.

Though his chest heaved and his legs shook, Hongjoong’s lust and instinct-driven mind took over full force at one particularly sensuous drag along his inner walls. Before he could think it through, he pulled himself up and into Seonghwa’s lap. 

“Can I please take it from here? As good as that felt, I’m really losing my mind.”

Seonghwa’s eyes shone as he nosed at Hongjoong’s cheek and mumbled out an almost shy affirmation.

Before another word could be spoken, Hongjoong reached between them and positioned Seonghwa’s length at his entrance which by this point felt almost flooded with the glossy substance. He pressed his lips to Seonghwa’s lips gently and slowly lowered himself onto his hardness. His eyes squeezed shut, tears gathering at the corners, as his body slowly adjusted around the heavy weight inside of him. His wet mouth dragged along Seonghwa’s lips and cheeks as his hips finally fitted almost flush to Seonghwa’s pelvis. 

The tears in his eyes fell as he lifted himself back up again in a fluid motion. He pushed Seonghwa down again so his back was pressed into the floor.

His chest felt so full of warmth and adoration as he stared down at the man below him. He lowered his upper half down to capture one of Seonghwa’s nipples in his mouth as he rolled his hips forward.

“Sh-Sh-Shit, oh my god… please do that again.” Seonghwa groaned out as Hongjoong’s tongue danced along the raised dots and lines of his chest like an artist painting his magnum opus. At the same time, he angled his hips in a way that made his slow undulations on Seonghwa’s thrumming shaft even more mind-numbingly gratifying. His thighs shook as he stuffed his face into the crook of Seonghwa’s neck and continued slowly rocking his hips. He could feel that Seonghwa was also shaking, but he was almost absolutely sure that he was holding back his urge to make them go faster. 

So, Hongjoong leaned back slightly and paused his movements to smile down at Seonghwa. He was fully seated, leaving no room for Seonghwa to move. He felt him trying too. The poor guy was bucking up like a beast in rut as Hongjoong just smiled down at him with dazed eyes. His smile dipped down when Seonghwa actually full on whined up at him.

“What’s the matter, baby?”

Seonghwa whined again and sniffled. Actually sniffled. Wide eyes seeming to tear up due to the lack of movement.

“Tell me what you want, Seonghwa.”

Seonghwa’s hands quickly grabbed at Hongjoong’s hips as he rushed out, “Pleasepleasepleaseletmegofaster!”

Hongjoong giggled again and simply sat up until he was nearly empty of Seonghwa’s length.

“Go ahead then… go faster!”

One sharp thrust upwards had Hongjoong falling face first back into Seonghwa’s chest and neck. From there, he just shoved both hands fully into Seonghwa’s hair to stay on board as he was unceremoniously thrusted into with vigor. He clenched down on the welcome intrusion and bit into any flesh that he could find as the cave became saturated with grunts and cries and especially wet and filthy sounds. On one particularly well angled thrust, Hongjoong’s eyes rolled back as he bit down mindlessly right into Seonghwa’s throat. 

“Oh my--f-f-f-uh--- am gonna…” Seonghwa shouted out while still pounding away at him. Hongjoong’s cheeks were wet with tears as he nodded against Seonghwa’s neck, mouth still clamped to the throbbing column of his throat.

Seonghwa maneuvered them one more time so Hongjoong was on his back again. He detached himself from Seonghwa’s neck to look up at him, lips red and slick. Seonghwa kissed the red from his lips with long, languid strokes of his tongue as he continued to push in and out of Hongjoong at a slower, more precise pace. He kissed down Hongjoong’s jaw to his neck and nosed at a similar spot to where Hongjoong had bit his own neck just moments ago. 

It felt like a question to Hongjoong so he just let out a soft yes and pulled his knees up to clench around Seonghwa’s sides. His hand slid between them to grasp and pump at his own aching length as Seonghwa bucked into him more erratically with each passing moment. Seonghwa’s teeth made purchase with Hongjoong’s throat just as he came; his muffled cry mingling with Hongjoong’s divine moans to create an aural delicacy. Just a moment later, Hongjoong’s trembling legs fell open weakly as he clenched around Seonghwa and spurted between their sweat-slick abdomens. 

When Hongjoong’s mind cleared of the sex-induced haze, he felt Seonghwa lapping at the skin of his neck which he had accidentally punctured in the heat of the moment. Seonghwa’s chest heaving with attempts to regulate his breathing while he attempted to mend what was broken.

“Seonghwa… you really don’t have to do that. I’ll heal in under an hour. Same with you.” He said with a smile as he nodded down to where a multitude of open mouthed bites lined Seonghwa’s neck and chest like pins on a map.

“Mmm smell nice…” Seonghwa grumbled into the mottled flesh as his eyes began to slide shut.

“I’m sure that can’t be true, but I’ll take a compliment where I can get it!” Hongjoong laughed and wrapped his arms around the body on top of him. Still inside of him. “Mmm...Hwa...don’t you think you should move?”

Seonghwa’s chest vibrated with a low growl of warning as Hongjoong shifted like he meant to move. 

“Ok ok… I get it. I won’t leave, but I’m not kidding… if you growl at me again, you’re gonna get bit for real.”

Another low rumble and a yawn tumbled out of Seonghwa before both of them succumbed to the exhaustion that made their bodies heavy with sleep.

***

“Oh, Hwa… don’t be such a square! It’s just a ten minute walk in the woods! Nothing will hurt us!” Hongjoong shouted over his shoulder at Seonghwa as he skipped past the tree line with a devious grin on his face. “Besides--if anything--I think that other folks need to watch out for us.”

Seonghwa chuckled and hurried his pace to catch up with his newly minted boyfriend. Oh, the excitement that thrummed through him every time he got to say that word. Boyfriend. I mean technically they were a little more than boyfriends. Labeling things gets a little tricky when you realize that you imprinted on someone within minutes of meeting them as a child. But Seonghwa supposes that stranger things have happened.

He was already unbuttoning his shirt as he finally caught up to Hongjoong. Their smiles were twin images as the light of the full moon shone down upon them.

It had been about a month since that night of firsts in the cave, and a lot had changed in such a short span of time. Contrary to what Seonghwa and Hongjoong thought, Blaine and Ryan hadn’t died on either night that they encountered them. Ryan was found a few towns away being tended to by a kind old woman that found him shivering and drenched on the side of the river that ran alongside her cabin. When he was asked what happened, it was like his encounter with Hongjoong had been completely wiped from his mind. Though the presence of a rabid dog or coyote was almost always present in his rambling explanations when the cops interviewed him. 

As for Blaine, Hongjoong knew that he remembered. He had the horrible scars to prove what happened to him. But after his first few crazed attempts to point the finger at Hongjoong as a lycanthropic cheerleader from hell failed, he learned that it was best to just steer clear of the duo and get on with his life. 

Since he stopped taking the medicine to suppress his changes, Seonghwa had started to fill into his clothes better and even joined the cross country team to build his endurance. God knew he was going to need it with a spitfire like Hongjoong at his side for the long haul.

Seonghwa found it rather funny that all of the events of the past month had unfolded in such a peculiar way because both Hongjoong and him had wanted to keep the other safe in their own way. Hongjoong never wanted Seonghwa to be harmed by the two oafs again so he tried to put a stop to it, and Seonghwa never wanted Hongjoong to find out what he had done so he tried to cover it up. Two halves of the same whole, just like their legends tended to outline.

As they made it out to the clearing by their cave, the clouds parted to reveal an exquisite full moon that seemed to have been waiting for their arrival. Their clasped hands parted as their skin tingled with anticipation instead of dread for the first time since they started their transformations. Their eyes seemed to gleam in the ghastly light of the moon as they dropped down on all fours together for the first time.

When the neighborhood prattled on about the twin howls and yips that speckled the previous night’s peaceful air the next day, Seonghwa and Hongjoong just grinned at each other secretively and walked away with their pinkies locked between them.