Work Text:
The city wakes up at night. After sundown, the grid of endless lights turn on, illuminating the streets and variety of buildings while evening traffic reigns alongside the bustle of locals navigating the commercial district.
Apartment complexes reside among the rows of buildings, and at nearly the top floor of one single bedroom unit in particular, the scene inside is much more unassuming. Rapid keyboard strokes, the buzz of the fish tank’s water filter, the rhythmic clicking of a steel ball inside a water dispenser, as well as the occasional chirps and flutter of wings all meld together to create a much gentler ambience.
However, just like the vibrant world below, even the softer sounds of life in his apartment go unheard by veterinary tech student, Lee Taeyong, a classical melody streaming gently through his headphones to occupy the subconscious portion of his mind that might otherwise try to distract him. His glasses reflect the word document on the laptop screen in front of him, which is currently the sole occupant of his attention, if the crease between his brows and the tip of his tongue set between his teeth is any indication.
Vet tech school may sound like fun and games, but there is a significant, unglamorous portion spent just like this.
As the night sky grows darker and the stars speckling it stand out more and more, the speed of the clicking keyboard starts to slow down, the pauses between each sequence of strokes growing longer and longer, until a sleek black cat jumps up on the desk between Taeyong and the laptop, claiming the last of his dwindling focus.
Taking his headphones, Taeyong rests them around his neck, reaching up to gently rub the cat’s chin. “Hello, Kiki,” he coos at the feline, leaning in so she can affectionately bump her forehead against his. “It is about dinner time, isn’t it?” He twists in his chair and stretches back to catch a glimpse of the time from the kitchen.
He had been working for hours and hadn’t even realized the appetite he worked up. Now that the better bulk of his brain power had been expended for this particular session of consciousness, it’s all he can notice.
Reaching past Kiki, Taeyong saves the document for what must be the hundredth, albeit final time for that evening. He then emails it to himself because past experience with glitchy technology that resulted in the loss of thousands of words and hours of work has made him paranoid.
There are other hungry mouths to feed before Taeyong can concern himself with his own though. Closing the laptop and heading to the kitchen, Taeyong takes out a porcelain plate and a can of paté. Kiki excitedly jumps up on the counter, placing herself between Taeyong and the plate, pacing in front of him and meowing impatiently.
“Kiki!” Taeyong laughs. “I know you’re hungry, but I can’t get you your dinner, if you’re blocking my way.” He gently ushers her aside, opening the can and shaking the contents onto the plate.
Kiki not so gracefully bumps his hand aside with her whole body and gets to work on her dinner. Taeyong just laughs and shakes his head, running a hand down her body and watching as her hind legs stretch as far as they can when he reaches her tail.
A thump on his front room window catches Taeyong’s attention, and he blinks up curiously. Double doors of a large casement window overlook the city, bathing the front room in moonlight. The small shadow in the upper right corner doesn’t go unnoticed, and Taeyong leaves the kitchen, tossing the metal can in the trash before making his way across the front room.
As Taeyong stops directly in front of the large pane of glass, he looks up at the shadow in the corner. A little bat dangles upside down from the overhead ledge, and a grin spreads across Taeyong’s face as he opens the opposing window, letting it swing out just enough for him to poke his head out and look up at the small creature.
“You know…” he says. “Your first invitation into my home had been all encompassing. Or do you require explicit permission every time?”
The bat drops from where it had been hanging, wings snapping open to catch the air, swooping right into Taeyong’s living room. It slows down as though bracing to land, but it doesn’t. Instead, it hovers there a moment then bubbles into a cloud of black, elongating and expanding into a large shadow several times its size until two large feet touch the ground and his head lifts to reveal the dangerously handsome face of a the Vampire Prince, Seo Youngho, Johnny—or as Taeyong liked to call him: his vampire boyfriend.
Wisps of black smoke curl from his frame before dissipating into nothing.
Kiki hisses, launching from the counter with such force that she sends the plate flying. She scrambles in a flurry of claws against the tile and disappears under the living room couch.
With inhumanly swift reflexes, the vampire lunges into the kitchen, streams of black smoke extending from his reach to effortlessly catch the plate, swirling under the porcelain and gently setting it back atop the counter.
The vampire’s regal features twist into something much more childlike as he turns back toward the living room, pouting as he looks at the dark space beneath the couch where the cat had disappeared. “Aww, Kiki!” he moans. “You wound me! I just want to be your friend.”
“Johnny!” Taeyong laughs, walking up to the vampire and setting his hands against his biceps. He has to tilt his head back to meet his gaze. “She’ll warm up to you. You’re just going to have to be patient with her. You wounded her pride.”
Unlike many among her feline species, Kiki is not a cat that’s easy to startle. However, when one night she pounced and successfully caught what she believed was a bat—furiously flapping its wings from her mouth while Taeyong screamed and panicked—only for the creature to suddenly transform into a six foot man… well, she may have been a little caught off guard.
“How is your arm, by the way?” Taeyong asks, looking down to the arm in question, which had bared the injuries left by Kiki’s canines that night. Both of Taeyong’s hands move to it, gliding over the black silk in a soothing gesture.
“Good as new,” Johnny replies. “I told you, I heal fast. Besides.” He grins. “I had the city’s best veterinarian tending to me. I was in good hands.”
“Not a veterinarian, a vet tech,” Taeyong corrects. “And technically not even that, I’m still studying.”
“And doing a fine job, I would say,” Johnny replies with a playful flourish of his brows.
Taeyong huffs a laugh, lightly biting onto his lower lip and grinning at the ground. Although he knows better than to flatter himself that his skills really contributed anything when Johnny possesses supernatural healing ability, the praise has his heart beating a little warmer anyway.
“I’m glad.” Taeyong lifts his gaze back to the Vampire Prince. The grin on his face lights up into an expression more devious. “Because then I can do this!” His arms move to the top of Johnny’s shoulders, and he hops right up against him.
Johnny easily catches him, arms curling beneath his butt as Taeyong’s legs circle around his waist and he supports his weight like it’s nothing.
Taeyong’s arms hug a little tighter around his neck, and Johnny smiles up at him, their faces not even an inch apart. This close, Taeyong can see the tips of his sharp, elongated canines peeking out from behind plush lips. A glint of red circles Johnny’s irises as their gazes lock, but it’s not that which grips Taeyong. It’s the raw desire that burns behind the unnatural glint that has Taeyong suppressing a shiver—far deeper than the basic thirst all vampires have to feed from humans.
No, the hunger present in Johnny’s eyes that he can see so clearly this up close burns exclusively for Taeyong, and Taeyong knows it. A pulse of adrenaline runs warm through his chest, the hair on the nape of his neck rising, and he can’t quite differentiate the sensation from fear or excitement.
Either way, he revels in it.
Johnny has had this effect on him since the first time they met. Taeyong can’t forget it.
His late night, weekend bartending gig at one of the city’s largest clubs both agrees with his school schedule and provides more than enough in tips to take care of his bills.
He had been backstage, preparing for the night, when a very high class and important looking individual was being escorted the opposite direction with his entourage to one of the exclusive balconies that overlooked the club.
Hardly a new sight for Taeyong, and he wouldn’t have even paid them any mind, except an inexplicable chill ran down his spine as he passed by. He could feel the eyes on him. Taeyong stopped, looking back to see the leader continuing to walk, but his gaze was locked back on Taeyong, red flickering in his irises, nostrils flaring, and Taeyong was sure he had never felt so exposed just by someone merely looking at him.
His heart rate picked up. Although at the time, he had no idea who the man was, much less what he was, he had the very distinct impression that if he lingered there long enough, he might be devoured alive.
That night, Taeyong ran from one side of the bar to the other, serving up drinks to the unending sea of patrons. Now and then, he would look up at the V.I.P. balcony, and every single time, there were those eyes gazing right down at him with their red gleam. The man they belonged to would grin, not quite cocky, not quite shy, just amused that he had been caught before he turned his attention back to his immediate company.
“Doyoung,” Taeyong eventually spoke into the ear of his equally hardworking and frazzled coworker. “That man in the balcony… he’s been watching me all night. Who is he?”
Doyoung took one look up, when his eyes all but boggled out of his head. “Jesus, Taeyong.” He grabbed Taeyong’s biceps firmly, forcing him to face him. “That’s Prince Youngho of the Seo clan. They’re vampires! Stay away from him!”
Taeyong wasn’t always the best at taking Doyoung’s advice.
Johnny’s body feels cool against his own. He always does. For most people, the vampire’s naturally chilly aura might be uncomfortable, but for Taeyong, who often finds himself kicking off his blankets in the middle of the night—even in the winter—because it feels like he has a biological furnace always burning in his core, Johnny’s cool touch and body always feels pleasant against him.
He hugs himself tighter against Johnny’s broad form as he’s carried over to the kitchen counter. Staring past the vampire’s shoulder, Taeyong catches his own reflection against the angle of the fish tank glass, which displays his arms and legs wrapped around nothing, his whole body seemingly floating through air.
Johnny sets him on the counter in the corner, leaving Taeyong surrounded by walls and secluded in by the vampire. He really has nowhere to run, and that just makes him grin as his hands slide down to the top of Johnny’s shoulders, fists curling into the fabric to gently pull him in.
“The blanket permission was enough, by the way,” Johnny says, hands sliding out from under Taeyong’s ass to move up to his waist instead. “But intruding your study session seemed rude.”
“Oh, please,” Taeyong breathlessly laughs, enjoying how small he feels in Johnny’s grasp. He tilts his head back and parts his lips slightly in invitation. “Stealing me away from this dense essay to whisk me off in the night would’ve been a rescue.”
“Is that right?” Johnny grins, his face closing in.
Taeyong can feel the flutter of breath on his lips, and his eyelids start to droop, but it’s in that precise moment that his stomach decides to growl rather loudly. Both men pause, eyes flitting down.
“You haven’t eaten?” Johnny states more than asks.
“Not yet,” Taeyong replies. “But it can wait.”
He tugs harder on Johnny’s silk collar to try to yank him down, but the vampire is already letting go of his waist and placing his hands on Taeyong’s shoulders to put some distance between them.
“You need to eat first,” Johnny insists.
Taeyong puffs out his lower lip, but as Johnny steps back and takes one of his hands, Taeyong lets himself be helped down without resistance.
“Fine, fine,” Taeyong sighs. “But they need their dinner first.”
Johnny grins. “Of course.”
He follows Taeyong as he makes his way through the apartment, tending to his enclosures of various animals, sprinkling flakes into the fish tank, cutting up fresh vegetables for the bunny as well as the birds, pinching worms in his feeding pliers for his gecko, all while cooing at each of them, humming and chirping little noises to himself in between.
Johnny laughs. “Your compassion for creatures so small and fragile is truly endearing.”
Taeyong looks back at him with a cheeky grin. “I could say the same for you.”
—
It’s not the chilly rush of the city’s October air that makes Taeyong shiver. His feet are planted against the window sill, a much larger, sturdier body pressed into his back. As he gazes down at the rush of cars and lights several stories below, he knows it’s only the firm hand on his torso that sits in between himself and certain death.
Adrenaline pulses through Taeyong’s chest, and as the gust picks up, the bottom of his feet sink harder into the ledge, hands scrambling up to clutch the arm around him, every instinct inside of him wanting to push himself back as hard as he could to get away, but he resists the urge.
Johnny’s breath against his ear has the hair on the back of his neck rising. “Scared?” he whispers.
“Terrified,” Taeyong admits.
“Should we go back inside?” Johnny asks.
Heaving a shaky breath, Taeyong forces his grip on Johnny’s arm to relax. “Absolutely not.”
Johnny hums amused in his ear. His feet move on the ledge around him, stepping so that his body is between Taeyong and the city below. He curls his arms around Taeyong’s torso and holds him against his chest. “Hold on tight.”
Taeyong grins, slipping his arms around the back of his neck, and Johnny launches off the window ledge, leaving tendrils of smoke in his wake as they whisk off into the night.
—
“How is school going?” Johnny asks, seated upright but relaxed, arms loosely curled around Taeyong’s waist while he basically exists as a chair for the small human, who is picking at a tray of gimbap.
They are the perfect mismatch, Johnny in his sophisticated attire of black silks and leather while Taeyong looks cozy in his oversized hoodie and joggers.
Seated atop one of the city’s taller parking garages, Taeyong has to admit he feels rather regal right now, like the city below belongs to him and Johnny is his throne.
Swallowing his gimbap piece, Taeyong licks his lips and sips from his water bottle to wash it down. Leaning against Johnny’s chest, he tilts his head back to look up at him with a skeptical eyebrow raise. “The Prince of Vampires really wants to know about vet tech school?”
Johnny looks down at him. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I would think.” Taeyong turns his attention back to his tray of food, picking up another piece between his chopsticks. “Compared to your nightly dealings among the supernatural court that the routines of my ordinary human life would be boring.” He pops the next piece into his mouth.
“Far from it,” Johnny says, letting his arms curl a little more snug around Taeyong’s waist while his head bows, nuzzling into Taeyong’s hair. “Human, you may be, but you are anything but ordinary. Your passion to tend to the smaller creatures of the world fascinates me.”
Taeyong grins around his gimbap piece. He would still argue that he thinks it would seem boring compared to Johnny’s faster paced nightly life, but if the vampire genuinely insists he’s interested, then he won’t argue.
“School is going well,” Taeyong answers. “Lots of textbooks and dense terminology to memorize and late nights. But then I get to shadow hands on and make all kinds of new animal friends every day,” he adds with a smile.
“It’s not always glamorous though. This week, we were practicing restraining hamsters, and I was bitten three times!” Taeyong huffs. “And I can’t tell you how many times I was just trying to check vitals, and I was thanked by being pooped on.”
Johnny snorts.
The grin on Taeyong’s face fades. “I love working with animals, but there’s a downside to it too. Sometimes it’s just their time. We do what we can to make it comfortable and easy, but that doesn’t make it hurt for their owners any less, and it’s hard. Sometimes I wonder if I’m really cut out for this.”
The arms around him squeeze a little tighter.
A small grin returns to Taeyong’s face, his gaze lifting to the stars. “But then there’s those other times. The ones where their owners come in desperate and hopeless, and the outlook is bleak, but they’re fighters and they make it. They come back a couple months later, all bright eyed and enthusiastic about life, so grateful that they have the chance to continue their life without even realizing it, and it all feels worth it.”
“That’s adorable,” Johnny says. “And you said it was boring.”
“Maybe you’re just easily impressed,” Taeyong teases.
“Maybe you don’t realize just how impressive you are,” Johnny shoots back.
Taeyong breathes a quick laugh, his round cheeks a little warm as he ducks his head to pick another piece of his dinner.
Swallowing it down, he glances up at Johnny. “What about you? How is life in the Vampire Court?”
Johnny huffs. “That, I’m afraid, is rather boring.”
“Try me,” Taeyong says.
With a chuckle, Johnny shakes his head. “Oh, you know, sitting around and listening to grievances of other clans, trying to appease one without pissing off the other, trying to prevent the Qians and the Lees from going into outright war since their sons didn’t seem to get the memo that their families have been fueding for centuries, not fucking.” Johnny heaves a weary breath. “Chasing after trails of so-called righteous hunters of the supernatural. Having to put some stray in their place because they’ve been terrorizing some small town under our protection in a desperate attempt to claim some semblance of what it feels like to have power. The usual.”
“Oh, yeah,” Taeyong says around a piece of gimbap that’s puffing out one of his cheeks. “Really boring.”
Johnny sits straighter upright so that he can look down more directly at Taeyong. “It may sound exciting and intriguing now, but try dealing with it night in and night out for decades.”
Decades, not centuries, because even among vampires, Johnny is still considered quite young.
Taeyong purposely slouches down so that he can tilt his head way back and stare directly up at Johnny. “Maybe I want to.”
Johnny laughs quietly, red flashing across his eyes. One of his hands slides up the front of Taeyong’s body, the pads of his fingertips and thumb gently brushing over the pulses on either side of his throat. “Sometimes I feel like you were born without the basic self-preservation instinct that the rest of your kind possesses.”
Taeyong’s eyes drift shut, and he leans forward slightly, purposely pressing his throat into the other’s touch. “Maybe so…”
Johnny lifts his head and lowers his hand, giving the side of one of Taeyong’s shoulders a playful tap. “Finish eating.”
Taeyong pouts, but he sits back up in Johnny’s lap and scoops up the remaining gimbap to shove in his mouth. Once he finishes it, he sets his chopsticks in the empty tray and dabs his mouth with his napkin, finishing off his water bottle to wash down the remnants.
“What I would like to know,” Taeyong says, leaning back against one of Johnny’s shoulders so that he can look up at his profile. “Is what the old vampire council thinks of their prince spending his free nights fooling around with some mere mortal?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘some,’” Johnny replies, grinning directly down at him. He sighs, lifting his arms to wrap loosely around the front of Taeyong’s shoulders as he looks out to the city. “I don’t really care what they think though. I uphold my duties. What I do in my free time is none of their business.”
Taeyong grins, leaning forward and gently extracting himself from Johnny’s embrace so that he can push himself to his feet. “Or who you’re doing, in this case.”
Amusement curls on Johnny’s lips, and he rises up to his feet with much more elegance and ease, following after Taeyong while the human tosses his trash in the nearest waste bin. “All finished?”
“Yep,” Taeyong replies, turning to face the vampire. “I’ve had my dinner, now you get yours.”
As Johnny steps forward with his arms outstretched, a coy grin appears on Taeyong’s face and he purposely steps just outside of Johnny’s reach.
“If you can catch me!” Taeyong says, and with that, he spins on his heel and takes off down the concrete descending into the covered section of the parking garage.
“Oh, is that how it’s going to be?” he hears Johnny call from behind him, and Taeyong’s grin widens, his heart rate picking up as his little legs take him further into the parking garage.
A large cloud of black not quite concealed in the cover of darkness materializes in front of Taeyong, making the rubber of his shoes skid against the pavement. Two glowing red circles gaze down at him until the smoke clears enough to reveal the shadows of Johnny’s face, and Taeyong yelps, placing his hands up to brace for a collision, but his feet maintain their balance as he twists to run a different direction, leaving a trail of his laughter echoing off the concrete.
Although the inside of the parking garage is predominantly dark, lights from the city outside peek through the openings enough to guide Taeyong’s way as he races down the descending slope, his breathing growing heavier, a smile plastered to his face.
Smoke billows thickly on one side of Taeyong’s vision, and he glances over to see Johnny’s face peeking from the tendrils once more, eyes glinting dangerously as he effortlessly glides alongside Taeyong.
“This seems like a futile effort, don’t you think?” Johnny asks next to him.
But Taeyong’s expression is unyielding, and he shifts to run a different direction.
Taeyong is well aware of what a futile effort this actually is. If he had genuinely been trying to run from Johnny, he wouldn’t have made it three feet before the other caught him. Taeyong knows realistically he stands no chance, but he appreciates his vampire boyfriend humoring him.
A neon “EXIT” sign buzzes overhead in front of the staircase, and Taeyong runs right for it, little laughs slipping from his lips between each heavy inhale of breath.
His hands reach out for the bar across the metal door, and for a moment, he genuinely believes he’s going to reach it, but then a lightning fast rush of black blocks out the light, and Johnny is standing between him and his escape.
Taeyong screams, skidding against the pavement, but this time the sudden halt in momentum is too much and his heel shoots out from under him, eyes going wide as his center of gravity is knocked off balance.
However, Taeyong is spared an unpleasant union between his ass and the pavement as he feels the gentle press of one of Johnny’s hands into the small of his back, the other circling around his wrist. Taeyong’s hands instinctively fall to Johnny’s shoulders, his equilibrium restored as his eyes meet the glimmer of red gazing down at him.
Johnny tsks. “Careful now!”
Taeyong smiles up at him, panting heavily as his heart pounds in his chest. As Johnny ducks in and lifts Taeyong to meet him, Taeyong’s eyelids droop, his gaze falling to the vampire’s lips as they draw nearer.
Then his whole body twists as he ducks out of Johnny’s embrace, rotating his arm in a circle to break the hold on his wrist.
“Hey!” Johnny shouts behind him.
Taeyong just laughs as his feet pick back up, resuming his descent down the parking garage rows.
He turns around the corner to run down the next stretch of concrete, then the next, all the while smiling bright and feeling way too pleased with himself.
When no more clouds of smoke plume around him, Taeyong looks over his shoulder expectantly, only to be met with an otherwise empty parking lot. His eyes flit to the corners and darker areas expectantly, but all that resides in them is shadows.
Taeyong slows down to a stop, leaning over to rest his hands on his knees as his heart continues to pound wildly and he pants to catch his breath. His throat burns and the muscles in his legs pulse as he realizes just how much energy he expended and how little he has if he’s going to try to continue this pursuit.
Swallowing, he lifts back up, his heartbeat and breathing starting to come back down.
“Johnny?”
His voice bounces off the surrounding concrete.
Taeyong frowns, continuing down the parking lot, though walking this time. His eyes dart to every corner, peeking around every turn expecting to find the vampire waiting for him but only finding the darkness of an otherwise unoccupied parking garage.
“Okay, Johnny, I know you’re hiding in here!”
Aside from the light echo, his words fall once again to silence. The breeze drifts gently through the garage’s openings, and the distant sounds of the city below are quiet like white noise, but it only emphasizes the silence inside the building. Despite the fact that Taeyong’s walking now, his heart rate starts to pick back up.
“Okay, very funny!” Taeyong pouts into the darkness. “You got me, you win. Come out already!”
Echoes. Then silence.
The longer the silence continues, the more the anticipation of Johnny popping up at any moment and scaring him starts to rise in his chest, to the point that Taeyong stops walking, more uneasy than excited.
Another thought occurs to him then. What if Johnny actually left?
He wouldn’t. There’s no way.
But this does feel a little too drawn out to be playful…
“Johnny?” Taeyong speaks again, quieter this time, almost like a whimper.
A tiny screech and equally small furious flutter of wings breaks the silence, and Taeyong immediately looks up to be met with the sight of gentle trails of smoke breaking the otherwise stillness of the shadows.
A pair of red eyes opening directly over him is all the warning Taeyong gets before he’s caught in a whirlwind of black smoke and a swarm of bats encircling him.
Taeyong screams, instinctively crouching and throwing his arms over his head until he feels the firm but surprisingly gentle press of a body against his own, strong arms circling around him to lift him off the ground and carry him out of the garage, disappearing into the night once again.
—
The double door windows of Taeyong’s apartment creak open, and black coils of smoke spill onto the floor inside before fading away as Johnny’s feet touch down. He carefully lowers Taeyong after him.
The small human laughs airily between heavy breaths, the endorphins coursing through his veins making him feel as though he’s walking on cloud nine.
It just turns out that rather than being blue and white and heavenly as Taeyong had always imagined, it’s actually dark and ominous and intense and so much better than his imagination could’ve ever painted it.
He turns to face Johnny, whose silhouette is framed starkly against the moonlight shining from outside the window.
One of Johnny’s hands slip against his waist while he lifts the other to tuck a finger under Taeyong’s chin, guiding him to look up at him.
“What am I going to do with you?” Johnny hums, leaving only a breath of space between them.
Taeyong’s eyelids droop, and there’s a moment he considers giving in to that warm desire to submit, but he lifts a hand, separating their lips as he covers Johnny’s mouth.
He clicks his tongue. “To think, you caught me, and now you’re letting me get away~”
Pushing Johnny back, Taeyong spins around and darts for his bedroom door.
“Really?” Johnny says behind him, though his tone is almost dangerous in how patient it is.
Pushing the door open, Taeyong races for his bed, kicking his shoes off then leaping for the end of it. He continues his escape on hands and knees as though he had somewhere that he could still possibly run.
Taeyong feels more than hears Johnny behind him, the bed dipping and groaning under the weight of the vampire sinking to his knees right at Taeyong’s heels.
The arms wrapping around him finally have Taeyong stopping. Johnny lifts a hand to pinch the side of Taeyong’s glasses and carefully remove them, a small coil of smoke twists from his wrist to take the metal frames and set them atop the nightstand.
“What’s gotten into you tonight, hm?” Johnny murmurs behind him.
“Just you,” Taeyong replies with a grin. “Or at least, I hope you will.”
Johnny huffs, the corner of his lips tugging upward. Gathering the front of Taeyong’s hoodie as well as the shirt underneath in his hands, he pulls it up from his torso, and Taeyong makes no move to stop him. He peels both garments together from over his head, but rather than removing it fully, he folds them back, leaving Taeyong’s arms still trapped in the sleeves and thus pinned to his sides.
Johnny takes Taeyong into his arms, hugging his back to his chest and making him sit in his lap. His lips press against Taeyong’s ear. “You really thought you could get away from me?”
Taeyong smiles, indulging himself in the feeling of how large and powerful Johnny feels against him. His eyes close, and he leans back into him as he shakes his head. “I knew I didn’t stand a chance.”
One of Johnny’s hands slide down the front of his body to the top of his thigh, taking hold of it while he pushes into his back to make his legs spread open. His other hand lifts to wrap gently against the front of Taeyong’s throat.
Johnny hums in amusement. “We haven’t even done anything yet, and you’re already so aroused. I can smell it.”
Taeyong’s eyes peek open, and his head turns just enough to look at the other’s profile. “Haven’t we though?”
Johnny hums. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were an adrenaline junkie.”
To that, Taeyong shakes his head again. He hasn’t always been like this. Up until several months ago, Taeyong really had only been the unassuming, introverted vet tech student everyone assumed he was.
Then he met Johnny, and his whole world turned upside down, like the vampire awoke some deep, carnal urge inside of him that he can’t ever seem to satiate for very long.
“Only with you,” Taeyong says.
Johnny smiles. “Good.” The pads of his fingers press tauntingly on the front of Taeyong’s throat, but then they ease up, his hand shifting down as his head curls in to press a kiss to the side of his lover’s neck.
As Johnny’s lips linger on Taeyong’s pulse, the vampire inhales deeply. Taeyong can feel the way Johnny’s whole body tenses against him, can feel the full weight of desire radiating off of him, as well as hear the faint tremble underlying his breath.
A smirk twitches onto the corner of Taeyong’s lips, all too knowing of the internal struggle that has just taken over his vampire boyfriend.
It’s the manifestation of that burn he can see residing in Johnny’s eyes up close, the one so much deeper than a vampire’s basic instinct to feed. He knows the way his scent lures Johnny in—invisible to other humans, but to the vampire’s heightened senses, it’s absolutely intoxicating. It’s like the stars created Taeyong exclusively for him, invoking a desire in the vampire so potent that it completely redefines the meaning of blood lust.
It’s what drew Johnny to him in the first place. The vampire caught a waft of Taeyong’s blood just passing by him and was instantly enraptured.
Yet despite all of that knowledge, despite knowing what Johnny is and what Taeyong is, and despite Johnny knowing that Taeyong knows and accepts all of it, all of him, there is something else deeply ingrained in him that is also exclusive to Taeyong: he doesn’t want to hurt him.
And so brings them to this impasse that Johnny always seems to hit despite how many times they’ve done this, and Taeyong can’t help but grin, letting himself indulge a little in the power that comes with his awareness of his vampire boyfriend’s dilemma.
He’s endeared by it, by the way Johnny’s breath grows ragged as he so obviously aches to just sink his teeth into the flesh and allow himself to drink that forbidden nectar, yet at the same time, Taeyong can feel the tremble spread throughout the body against him as Johnny continues to fight against all those baser instincts.
Perhaps the day will come where Johnny becomes so comfortable with him that he no longer has this hesitation, but if Taeyong’s being honest with himself, he admittedly hopes he never does.
Still, as much as he enjoys it, he’s not so cruel to draw this out for too long.
“Do it,” he whispers. He drops his ear to one shoulder, exposing the stretch of his bare neck for him. “I know you want to. Come on. You’ve more than earned it.”
The arm around Taeyong’s body tightens, and Johnny laughs low against his neck. “There’s that lack of self-preservation instinct again.”
“Or maybe…” Taeyong breathes, leaning back into Johnny and playfully wriggling his ass against the vampire’s crotch. “I like it as much as you do, and I know you wouldn’t ever really hurt me.”
He can feel the way the movement has Johnny tensing, but he relaxes a moment later, lifting his head to brush his lips against the shell of his ear. “Do you have any idea just how good you smell to me? How exquisite you, specifically, taste to me? Just how potent the effect you have on me truly is?”
His lips find their way back down to Taeyong’s pulse, placing the gentlest of kisses over the vulnerable skin before Johnny draws in another deep breath. “It takes everything I have not to completely devour you the way every instinct in me wants to.”
Of everything that’s transpired this evening, it’s here that Taeyong knows he should actually feel afraid. But he can’t.
Taeyong’s eyes shift to catch the outline of Johnny’s face. “Then how come you never do?”
Johnny lifts his head. One hand comes up to firmly grasp Taeyong’s chin, bringing their faces together so Johnny can kiss him in a hard crush of lips. Taeyong only has a moment to whine in the intensity of it before Johnny’s lips are removed from his, the arm around his body curling tight, and Johnny’s mouth plants against his neck.
Taeyong’s skin breaks, giving way easily to the sharpness of canines penetrating them, emphasized by the pressure clamping down. Taeyong’s whole body is paralyzed.
A small cry cracks from his lips, followed by a whimper, and while Taeyong’s body’s initial impulse reaction is to tense, a few moments later he’s completely unwinding, going lax like a scruffed kitten and giving himself over to Johnny entirely while the vampire feeds off of him.
Johnny growls low against his neck, gulping him down greedily, yet despite how unabashed and obscene it is in Taeyong’s ear, he is putty in Johnny’s arms, muscles unwinding more and more.
The vampire lets off with a wet pop, dragging his tongue over the bite marks and giving Taeyong’s a moment’s reprieve, up until the hand on Taeyong’s neck presses against the front of his throat and Johnny curls back down to sink his teeth into the top of his shoulder. Another feeble cry escapes Taeyong’s lips as his body yields to the vampire.
He’s completely helpless as Johnny drinks from him, and the way his arms are still pinned against his body, trapped in his hoodie, only emphasizes that feeling of vulnerability. His life is completely in the hands of the vampire, and that knowledge has exhilaration flooding his body in a way no scary heights or menacing shadows could ever hope to mimic.
Johnny releases his shoulder, exhaling a gravelly breath before brushing his lips over the wound in a gentle contrast to the assault he had just laid on it. Taeyong’s breathing is just as heavy, the rush of it all leaving him light and tingly, like he might just drift off if not for the fact that Johnny has such a firm hold of him.
“How do you feel?” Johnny asks.
Taeyong’s eyes peek open, tilting his head to catch Johnny’s face, the deep red in the other’s eyes starting to settle now that his thirst had been at least partially quenched. A smear of blood trails from the swell of his lower lip down his chin, and Taeyong can only imagine the horrific scene the two of them have created.
Twisting as far as his body will allow, Taeyong playfully laps at his own blood from Johnny’s chin before bringing their lips together once more. The arm around his body tightens as Johnny returns the kiss, the noise in his throat low and rough while Taeyong moans softly, lips sliding over each other, tasting more of his own blood as he laps the inside of Johnny’s mouth and traces the sharp points of his fangs.
Taeyong draws back, licking his lips as he gazes up at Johnny through half-lids. “Better than ever.”
Johnny grins, fangs exposed.
The arms around Taeyong release, hands taking hold of the human’s small waist to flip him around. Taeyong’s lowered to his back, arms still trapped against his sides as he lays against the taught fabric. Johnny takes the hem of his pants and boxers, sliding them down so Taeyong’s cock springs free. The rush of cool air against his arousal contrasts to the heat pulsing around the oozing bite marks, sending a small shiver down his body.
“Oh, look at you,” Johnny murmurs, the amusement in his voice evident as he peels the garments from Taeyong’s legs then carelessly tosses them aside. “All ready for me.”
“Ready for you,” Taeyong hums back shamelessly. His darkened eyes meet Johnny’s gaze, and his thighs spread out in invitation, completely bared to him. “Want you in me.”
Johnny breathes a laugh, leaning over Taeyong and planting a hand against the mattress near his head. His other hand reaches for the side table a few feet away, and two tendrils of smoke extend out from his reach, curling around the drawer handle and pulling it open. A bottle of lubricant seemingly floats up from the drawer of its own accord and flies into Johnny’s open grasp.
That hand also presses into the mattress as Johnny dips down, bringing their lips together yet again. His free one lifts so that he can touch the side of Taeyong’s face, and Taeyong hums contentedly into the kiss, pliant lips parting, tongues brushing against each other, a sweet contrast to the more prominent smears of blood trailing down his neck and shoulder as well as both their mouths.
Johnny lifts back up, letting his eyes trail down the full expanse of Taeyong’s nude form. “You’re so beautiful.”
A small grin appears on Taeyong’s face, the words making his heart flutter no matter how many times Johnny has told him as much.
It fades a moment later, and his eyebrows shift upward. “You’re not done feeding, are you?”
“My darling rose,” Johnny laughs, sitting back on his heels between Taeyong’s thighs. He flips open the lube bottle and pours some into his hand, smearing it around on his fingers. Tossing the bottle aside, his lubed fingers slide into the heat between the cleft of Taeyong’s ass, making him gasp and arch his back off the bed. Despite his effort to warm the lube, Johnny’s just naturally cool to the touch, but Taeyong is okay with that.
Johnny bows over him. “I’m just getting started.” His lips press a kiss to one of Taeyong’s collarbones, then down to his chest, his tongue circling over one of his pink nipples, which hardens under the attention and the subsequent exposure to the cool air. A single lubed finger circles and teases his hole while his mouth closes around the nipple, and he breaks the previously unblemished skin with his fangs while simultaneously breaching the tight ring of muscle.
Taeyong cries quietly as his head presses back into the mattress, his cock twitching against his stomach and dribbling precome. Johnny’s barely sunken in past the first knuckle when Taeyong’s clenching around, which he knows is counterproductive given his vampire boyfriend’s objective, but he can’t help it. However, just like with the very first plunge of teeth into his flesh, Taeyong’s muscles unwind once again, giving way to Johnny, the perfect malleable toy for the vampire to play with.
Johnny growls against his skin, the vibrations sending pleasant little shivers down Taeyong’s body, heels pressing into the mattress and thighs falling open as the digit inside him works its way in. The contrast of sensations ignite the heat in his belly, and it spreads through his veins, chest heaving as his breaths grow increasingly rough and desperate.
Johnny removes his mouth from Taeyong’s chest only to sink his fangs into the curve of his waist, then again just under his navel, all the while working his finger in and out of him, massaging his way against the hot walls clenched around him to open them up for a second finger and once he’s stretched him more, a third.
Shifting down so that he’s on his stomach, Johnny’s head is level with Taeyong’s crotch, and he curls an arm around one of the slim thighs near his shoulder before pressing a kiss to the sensitive inner flesh.
Taeyong’s encased arms shift as his back arches off the bed, hips wriggling against the three fingers that have worked their way inside him that keep nudging up enticingly against his prostate before drawing back, leaving Taeyong squirming for some kind of friction only to find none.
“Johnnyyyyyyy,” he whines, but the sound is breathy, endorphins and blood loss leaving him floaty, sapping the strength that would otherwise support the complaint.
“Something the matter, my love?” Johnny hums, hugging the thigh over his shoulder and pressing a firmer, wetter kiss to the inside of it, fangs scraping over the skin ever so gently while his submerged fingers wriggle playfully.
“You…” Taeyong pouts, hips rocking against the intruding fingers, aching for some kind of relief. His face feels hot, sweat already gathering at his hairline. “You’re teasing me.”
“Oh?” Johnny grins against his thigh, placing a light kiss before lifting his head enough to see Taeyong’s face. “Is there something that you wanted?”
The leg around Johnny’s shoulder curls as Taeyong’s eyes screw shut, and he lets out a particularly frustrated whine.
“Well, that doesn’t tell me anything,” Johnny clicks his tongue. “What have I said about using your words?”
“Mean,” Taeyong huffs. But as he squirms uselessly against the fingers inside of him that always seem to fall just out of reach of hitting that sweet spot, Taeyong knows he has to concentrate, knows that even though his vampire boyfriend can read his body and play it like an instrument customized just for him, he still likes to hear Taeyong say what he wants.
“I want you,” Taeyong breathes out, eyes peeking open to see the bloodied face of the Vampire Prince smirking up at him through a hazy gaze. “Want you inside me. Want you to make me come. Want you to come in me.”
An amused hum slips from Johnny’s lips, the tip of his tongue slipping out to taste the blood on his lips and trace one of his fangs. “My sweet little baby, you’re so needy.” His head curls in to press another kiss to his thigh. “After all that struggle you’ve given me tonight, you think you’ve earned that?”
Taeyong whimpers on impulse; however, on the inside, the more mischievous part of him lights up. He looks down at Johnny, puffing out his lower lip, lifting his eyebrows in that way that he knows make his eyes go big and round. “Please?”
“Oh, the boba eyes…” Johnny sighs. “That’s cheating.”
To which Taeyong just twists his brow upward more.
“My weakness exploited,” Johnny says with exaggerated dismay.
The grin reappears on his face a moment later. “Well, since you said please.”
When he curls his head in this time, his lips part against the skin and his teeth plunge into the sensitive flesh of Taeyong’s thigh, fingers twisting their way back in and curling so that the pads of them can massage generously against their mark.
Taeyong’s eyes roll back, a broken cry escaping his throat as his mouth falls open. His body writhes and lifts from the bed, giving way to the dual assaults that overtake him and flood his veins with fire. The concentration of pleasure in his core pulses through his lower abdomen and his thighs, tremors running through them as he knows it’s only a matter of moments before the peak of his pleasure breaks through.
“J-Johnny! Johnny!” Taeyong cries. “Fuck! Oh, fuck! Wait!”
That has Johnny’s fingers easing up, fangs retracting and lips sliding over the wound before he grins up at his increasingly ruined lover. “Yes, baby?”
“I’m gonna come.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I want you!” Taeyong whines between pants.
“You’ll get me,” Johnny gently assures him, swiping his tongue over the wound he inflicted before pressing a kiss to it. “The night’s still young, and I intend to make the most of it.”
And with that, his fingers curl inside him once more, stroke after generous stroke attacking that bundle of nerves, making Taeyong cry out and wriggle off of the bed, his cock leaking messily and bouncing against his body, tears sprouting from his eyes and dribbling down his pink face until all he can see is white, body going rigid as his thighs tremble and he spills all over his stomach.
“That’s it, baby, that’s it,” Johnny murmurs as he massages every last drop out of him. “So fucking beautiful.”
Taeyong falls back to the bed, a cluttered heap of limbs. His body is a mess of sweat and blood, skin splotchy and eyes dazed while he pants raggedly for breath.
Johnny slips his fingers out of him, and if Taeyong had the energy and mental clarity at the moment, he would whine at the sudden emptiness, but all he can concentrate on is catching his breath while his body shakes and his mind attempts to come back down from its current state of reeling.
Johnny kisses his way back up Taeyong’s body until he’s hovering directly over him, his clean hand taking his chin to direct his face his direction so he can place a kiss on his lips that is almost painful with how contrarily sweet it is.
“Breathe, baby,” Johnny whispers. “Just breathe.”
And Taeyong does, basking in the feeling of Johnny’s touch as his hands make their way to his waist and slide down to his hips, enjoying how cool they feel against his overheated skin.
“Look at you,” Johnny says, smiling as he lifts up enough to really take in the full sight of Taeyong beneath him. “Oh, if you could see what a lovely ruined mess you are right now.”
That has Taeyong pouting. It wouldn’t be the first time the vampire had made a complete wreck of him and had yet to even remove a single article of his own clothing. Taeyong knew it wouldn’t be the last either.
His heavy legs lift, and he doesn’t have the strength to hug his thighs against Johnny’s hips to pull him in like he would like to, but that doesn’t stop him from loosely wrapping them anyway.
“I want you,” Taeyong says in a quiet complaint. His arms weakly strain against their makeshift bindings, compelled by the urge to take Johnny into his embrace. “Want you to fuck me. Use me.”
Johnny laughs, one hand cupping the side of Taeyong’s face as he brings their lips together again, lips parting just enough so that their tongues can meet but still keeping it tender.
“You’re so cute,” Johnny murmurs against him. “How could I refuse?” He shifts up, reaching a hand to the buttons of his shirt so that he can flick them open. The black silks and leather adorning him go hazy, transforming into curls of black smoke that drift away from his body before dissolving into the air and leaving him completely naked.
As the vampire’s cool hard body presses into his own, Taeyong can feel just how aroused the other had become no matter how composed he may outwardly appear.
Reaching under Taeyong, Johnny lifts him and strips the clothing binding his arms the rest of the way off. Taeyong sighs, arms tingly, but they find their place around Johnny’s shoulders as their bodies fit together in the way they so effortlessly do and their lips meet once more.
His hands rove over Johnny’s shoulders, fingertips finding the grooves of all the hard muscle abundantly defined over the vampire’s physique, drinking him in with his sense of touch and simultaneously displaying his appreciation. His eyes open as Johnny moves to locate the bottle of lube again, gazing up through droopy lids.
Taeyong’s body feels heavy and his head feels light, intoxicated more deeply than a substance could induce. His body could easily succumb to the desire of sleep, but even in his dazed state, his senses are so tuned in to Johnny.
Taeyong is all but helpless prey at the mercy of the vampire, and he loves it.
Distantly, he registers the slick sound of Johnny applying lube over himself, eyes too focused on the face hovering over his until he sees that telltale glint of red glowing down at him. Even after feeding off of Taeyong so greedily, that hunger in his eyes burns, and not even the high of endorphins can fog Taeyong’s mind so much that he can’t see it.
Taeyong’s thighs are folded back against his body, and no matter how well Johnny preps him, no matter how many times they’ve done this before, the pressure of his cock’s girth penetrating him is always so much that Taeyong’s body tenses, a low moan escaping his lips.
“Relax, baby,” Johnny hums down at him with a grin.
In his blissed out state, it’s all too easy for Taeyong to comply. His legs curl loosely around Johnny’s torso, fingers tangling in the dark locks on the nape of his neck, and his eyes close, tuning out all sensation besides the concentration of being stretched open, the cool body pressing against his own, and the thickness of his own pulse beating around each of the seeping bite marks littering his body.
Johnny starts slow, hips rolling controlled and steady, his cock sinking further and further into Taeyong with each movement, opening him that much more.
Taeyong revels in this slow beat, this little intermission. Outside of this unassuming little apartment is a bright, vast city filled with lights ,colors, and sound, and outside of that is a whole world, an entire universe, but in this moment, none of that exists. All that exists is his consciousness and Johnny’s shuddering breaths and contracting muscles and the strain of pleasure gathering in his core as their bodies come together and he feels so incredibly full.
Taeyong whimpers, heels digging weakly into Johnny’s back and fingers twisted into his hair as though desperate to hold onto the moment just a little bit longer. With the way Johnny’s lips brush over his and he whispers his name ever so gently, he thinks perhaps the vampire possesses mind-reading abilities too.
Like all moments though, this one passes, and the rock of Johnny’s hips steadily pick up, the rolls growing faster and harder and less controlled. Taeyong’s heels slip from Johnny’s back, the hands in his hair sliding down his shoulders, nails digging into the cool flesh to mount in place.
Taeyong’s head drops back, his mouth hanging open, the small stream of whimpers sliding from his lips growing into more pronounced cries as Johnny thrusts into him, hard and deep, and it’s all Taeyong can do to pull his thighs back as though desperate to take in even more of him.
“Fuck, you feel so good,” Johnny rasps between grunts. “So fucking good.”
Taeyong’s bleary eyes open to meet the glowing red ones gazing down at him. Johnny’s hair is unkempt around his face, stray locks stuck in place from the accumulation of sweat as well as smears of blood, and he’s just so utterly and completely gorgeous.
Johnny, the Prince of Vampires, and he’s all Taeyong’s.
It’s in that moment that Taeyong catches his second wind, his body sufficiently stimulated and eager, his spent cock growing once more between the friction of their meeting bodies. His shoulders rise from the mattress, curling his head up to bury his face in the curve from Johnny’s neck and shoulder, sinking his teeth into the soft flesh there.
A surprised gasp breaks from Johnny’s lips, but a moment later, he’s laughing, a hand curling into the back of Taeyong’s head as though to hold him there and encourage the bite.
Even his hardest effort is comparably feeble to the marks left over his body, but still, while Taeyong is proud to wear the scars that show he belongs to the Vampire Prince, he wants to make sure all the supernatural creatures Johnny encounters in his royal life know the little human he belongs to too.
Of course, the more logical part of him knows that Johnny has a supernatural healing ability, but caught up in the heat of the moment, Taeyong isn’t thinking about that.
And with the way Johnny holds him there, he suspects the pride felt at wearing the other’s mark is mutual.
Taeyong’s head drops back to the bed, mind going blank of all thought, tuned in only to the intensity of being impaled again and again on Johnny’s cock, of the lewd slapping of their bodies and the contrast of warmth that floods his chest from being tangled up so intimately with him.
A low groan rumbles from Johnny’s throat. One of his hands curl under the curve of Taeyong’s ass while another presses flat between his shoulder blades, and next thing Taeyong knows, both of their bodies have risen from the bed.
His stomach flutters from the sudden weightlessness, and it’s perhaps a blessing that his mind is too slow to process the moment and panic. Before he has the chance to, Taeyong’s back is pressed into the wall, Johnny still positioned between his legs with his hands and knees pressed against the vertical surface.
Tendrils of smoke curl from Johnny’s body as they seemingly defy the laws of gravity, the wall holding them in place as though it were the ground.
Johnny fucks him against the wall while Taeyong holds on, his back arching, his cock bouncing between their bodies. His eyes screw shut, and another whine cracks from his lips, the change of position reducing the friction against his own arousal while Johnny’s thick length glides against Taeyong’s internal sweet spot but falls short of hitting it directly.
Somewhere distantly in his mind, he’s aware of how this must sound to the neighbors, deepening the pink already flushed over his cheeks. However, that hidden exhibitionist side of him low-key hopes they are overheard.
One of Taeyong’s hands slips from around Johnny’s shoulders to reach between their bodies, but before his fingertips reach his own cock, Johnny’s slapping his hand away.
“No,” Johnny says simply.
Taeyong meets his gaze with a pout.
Johnny slides out of Taeyong, leaving him empty and clenching around air, which only makes him whine more. However, before he can fully protest, Johnny is taking him by the waist, flipping him around so that he’s facing the wall, and the vampire’s body is pressing into his back.
One of Johnny’s large hands curl around both Taeyong’s wrists, holding them together and pinning them over his head while the head of his cock glides teasingly between his cheeks before pressing back inside of him.
Taeyong moans, clenching against the fullness, his ass instinctively rolling back to press more snugly against the front of Johnny’s hips.
“I want you to come on my cock alone,” Johnny breathes hoarsely into his ear, and Taeyong whimpers, more precome leaking from his own bouncing member.
And next thing Taeyong knows, his face and chest are pressed against the wall while the grasp around his wrists tightens. Johnny’s other hand takes his hip, and he resumes thrusting inside of him, creating a ruckus of skin slapping against skin, while the two of them sing a broken chorus of Johnny’s harsh grunts and Taeyong’s all but sobbing moans as his prostate is directly slammed into again and again.
“Bite me,” Taeyong breathlessly pleads.
Pressure from the sharp plunge of fangs erupts into the opposing side of his neck, and Taeyong loses himself to that sweet euphoria, rippling heavy through his core and tingling all the way to his extremities for the second time that evening.
White splatters against the wall in front of him, and just when his muscles start to unwind, he feels Johnny’s whole body go rigid as he smacks into him a few more times before sheathing himself fully and stuttering Taeyong’s name into his ear.
Taeyong shivers pleasantly, appreciative of the feeling of being filled by him, wanting to pause this moment and hold onto it too, if only so that he can keep Johnny’s seed locked deep inside of him for a little while longer.
However, that moment, like the other moment, also passes, and Johnny is releasing a heavy shuddering breath as his muscles relax. Taeyong all but melts into him as he lays back, gelatin in Johnny’s arms.
Letting go of his hips and wrist, Johnny’s arms curl around Taeyong, and their bodies gently drift from the wall back to the bed, where Johnny sits propped up against the pillows and headboard. Taeyong lays back against his chest while the other’s softening cock remains buried inside him, which he’s happy about even if he can’t coherently express as much.
Johnny loosely holds him, running his fingers through his hair and nuzzling the side of his face. Taeyong’s head falls slack back atop Johnny’s shoulder, muscles trembling but otherwise completely lax and useless, chest heaving with every breath, body and mind too spent for words.
Taeyong can’t be sure how much time passes in that gentle intimate silence. It could be a few seconds, perhaps several minutes. His mind, dazed out and blank in pure bliss, almost misses the way Johnny whispers into his ear, “I love you. You’re so beautiful, Taeyong. So perfect. In all my decades, I’ve never met anyone like you.”
The faintest of grins twitches onto Taeyong’s lips.
He’s so exhausted that he barely registers the way Johnny curls him up in his arms and carries him into the bathroom, drawing him a warm bath and taking his time cleaning him thoroughly, taking care not to aggravate any of the punctures.
By the time they’re back in his bed, all Taeyong’s wounds are properly cleaned and bandaged, and all he wants to do is curl up against Johnny and sleep, but he feels the press of a plastic straw against his lips as the vampire orders, “Drink.”
Taeyong wants to protest, only wanting to sleep, but as Johnny’s arm curls around the back of his shoulders and the straw is pressed more insistently, even his exhausted self wants to please him, so he takes a sip, already familiar enough with this ritual of theirs that he’s not surprised when apple juice splashes over his taste buds.
His malleable form seamlessly fits against Johnny’s as their limbs lazily tangle together, and the other pulls the blankets over them. Johnny’s body is so cool against him, absorbing the excess of heat Taeyong’s generates until they find a comfortable equilibrium.
—
When Taeyong wakes the next morning, he only knows it’s morning because of the clock displayed by the bed. Johnny had thoroughly drawn all the curtains and even draped thicker blankets over them, blocking out any sneaky rays of sunlight.
A sleepy groan slips from his lips as he nuzzles Johnny’s chest, curling his arms tight around his torso, not quite wanting to wake yet.
Johnny, who he knows didn’t sleep, lifts a hand to run his fingers through his hair. “Morning, baby. How you feeling?”
“Tired,” Taeyong grumbles against his chest. “But fine,” he adds, knowing that’s the answer the vampire wants.
The bite marks across his body are sore, and his muscles ache dully, but it’s a pleasant sort of pain, gratifying as though it were something he earned, like the muscle strain that sets in the day after working out.
“Good.” Johnny presses a kiss to the top of his head before starting to unweave his limbs.
Taeyong is quick to hug him tighter and whine in protest.
“Baby, I’ll be right back,” Johnny laughs. “You need more juice. And breakfast.”
“Need you,” Taeyong huffs.
“And I need you,” Johnny sighs, stroking Taeyong’s hair. “And to have you, I need you to stay strong and healthy.”
Another grumble escapes Taeyong’s lips, but his hold reluctantly eases up.
Luckily, Johnny doesn’t have him waiting too long, coming back with more juice and a protein bar, well aware that Taeyong wouldn’t be patient enough to wait for him to make a full breakfast just yet.
Johnny sits on the bed with Taeyong curled up in his lap while he sips from his juice box and nibbles on his protein bar. The vampire loosely holds him, fingertips gently tracing over one of the bandages on his neck before dipping his head down to gently kiss the top of it as if in apology.
A small grin appears on Taeyong’s lips. Contrary to what Johnny might think, it’s not the danger and the rush of adrenaline that excites Taeyong so much. It’s the fact that he can allow himself to be completely exposed and vulnerable, and Johnny, the fearsome, menacing predator that he is, just takes care of him.
He trusts Johnny in inhumanly impossible way that he never would’ve fathomed he could trust another being, and it’s just so fucking liberating.
As Taeyong drinks the last of his juice, he feels gentle fingers on his cheek, turning his head so that Johnny can press a sweet kiss to his lips. Taeyong grins against it.
“Johnny…” Taeyong murmurs just above a whisper. “Your compassion for creatures so small and fragile is truly endearing.”
Johnny exhales a laugh. “Well, I don’t know that I would say I am toward all of them.” He looks down at Taeyong. “In fact, I would say it’s only one.”
Taeyong’s lazy grin widens. “Why do you take such good care of me?”
“Well, I have to,” Johnny replies. “I want to keep you forever.”
Taeyong’s expression turns cheeky. “You know what you need to do to keep me forever.”
“One day,” Johnny sighs, fingers tracing the outline of one of the bandages. His arm lowers to wrap around the front of Taeyong’s shoulders. “For now, the smaller creatures of the world still need you.”