Chapter Text
Yanjun stared at the newcomer. That was supposed to be the werewolf everyone had been gushing about? And here he'd thought he'd have to put up an act to show him who's boss. They were an almost all exclusive vampire school, though there were some human and halfers as well. It was the first time in...well, ever that a werewolf entered their school. It was the third year that the school allowed other beings in. No one had dared to, though. Knowing that the school was in fact filled with vampires. And other races usually weren’t too keen on them. The guy was Malaysian, though, so his parent had probably not known it when they'd entered him.
Yanjun had expected a lot of things when he'd heard the news of a werewolf joining. He'd expected a large, rather hairy guy with probably like a scar covering his face from where a fellow werewolf had once gashed. He’d already mentally prepared himself to corner him after school with a couple of his buddies and tell him he should think twice about causing a ruckus.
He hadn't expected a small boy with chubby cheeks to enter, nervously fidgeting with his fingers as the teacher introduced him as You Zhangjing, the werewolf.
"There's an empty place in the back", the teacher smiled kindly, she was human. "Next to the Lin Yanjun. The guy with the blonde hair."
Yanjun quickly tried to look disinterested as the werewolf looked over to him, before bowing to his teacher and hastily walking over to the seat next to Yanjun's.
As he did so his scent entered Yanjun's nostrils. It was unlike anything he'd ever smelled before. True, he’d never smelled a werewolf before, as there were hardly any left in China and Taiwan. And if there were, they usually wouldn’t come to the small village on the country side, which was where Yanjun had spent most of his life. He’d expected them to smell faintly like coppery blood, a tinge of dog masked by the sickeningly sweet smell of whatever cheap cologne or perfume they might’ve been wearing.
He hated when people put on perfume or cologne, as did about every other vampire in the world. It hurt his sensitive nose and made him feel lightheaded. This werewolf also made him feel lightheaded, but not because of something he was wearing, it was because he smelled really fucking good.
Incredibly good, even. He didn't smell like dog. though there was still the slightest hint of coppery blood, it seemed overshadowed by something more sweet. Almost like freshly baked cookies. Yanjun didn't know how to describe it. He subconsciously leaned a bit towards him.
Zhangjing turned to him, eyes big and questioning. Yanjun abruptly leaned away again, glaring to the front of the class and cursing himself. So what if the guy happened to smell good, it really didn't matter. He was still gonna talk some sense into him later.
He sat stiffly next to Zhangjing the entire lesson, trying the take shallow breaths (though all he wanted to do was take gulps to get as much of Zhangjing's sweet smell in as possible).
When the teacher announced the break he turned to the werewolf, who was already looking at him.
"Are you okay? You don’t look too well", he said quietly, a small frown on his face. His Mandarin was really good. He must’ve already lived in China before.
"Worry about yourself", he said, trying to sound as though he didn’t give a shit about what Zhangjing smelled like.
Zhangjing put up his hands. "Woah there, no need to snap. I was just worried. Sorry for assuming."
Yanjun suddenly felt a little guilty for his reaction. All his motivation for giving him a warning was gone at this point.
Zhangjing huffed when Yanjun stayed quiet and looked away with a small, whispered "sheesh” that Yan would’ve undoubtedly not heard if he hadn't had superior hearing.
"No, wait", he said. Zhangjing turned back around. "I...didn't mean it like that. I just...I thought you were going to be different?"
"Different how?", the werewolf asked with raised eyebrows.
"Y'know, more like the werewolves in the movies", he muttered. For a second Zhangjing’s face fell, but then a small, understanding smile replaced it.
"Right, you don't really get a lot of werewolves around here, do you?"
"More like none, to be honest", Yanjun laughed easily.
"Yeah, I noticed. It smells pretty dead in here", Zhangjing said, with a small wiggle of his nose. Yanjun stared at him for a second, before bursting into loud laughter.
"Yeah well, at least now there's some wet dog mixed in there as well", he joked. Zhangjing put his hand on his chest and let out a fake, scandalized gasp.
"Where did this sudden verbal attack come from?", he asked.
It was at that exact moment that Xukun and Xiao Gui chose to enter the conversation.
"Is he trying to be cool again? Don’t worry about him, honestly. Once you get to know him he's...well, I wouldn't say he's kind, but he's like at least 80 percent less cool", Xiao Gui, that fucker, told Zhangjing.
Yanjun turned to glare at the human, who gave him cheeky smile in return. "It’s like you forget I could literally snap your neck at any given time."
Zhangjing let out a shocked gasp. Yanjun turned to see him looking at him with big eyes.
"They're always like that, it's their way of showing affection", Xukun said before Yanjun could. Zhangjing turned to his friend, eyes widening even more (if that was even humanly possible), before quickly averting them.
Yanjun guessed he understood. Xukun was a creature of extreme beauty. The other boy often said that it was in his genes, Yanjun said it was because he was half vela. ("Dude, you have literally seen my parents. They're both vampires", Xukun would always say. Yanjun didn’t buy it, though.)
"I'd like to see you try, I’m pretty sure they'll lock you up for that", Xiao Gui said dryly.
"You underestimate me, I've already got an entire escape plan. I'll move to Finland, where I will then take on the name Hans and live out the rest of my life, smiling to myself because I was finally able to get rid of the most annoying little shit in the universe without anyone ever suspecting good ol' Hans", Yanjun said with a small grin.
Xukun sniggered as Xiao Gui pretended to grab his heart with a pained expression. A high giggle told Yanjun that Zhangjing also found him funny.
As he met the other boy's twinkling eyes and saw the amusement in them he decided that Zhangjing was gonna be joining their friend group whether he liked it or not.
And join them he did. He sat with them at lunch and during breaks and they even walked home together. Well, mostly with Yanjun. They practically lived next to each other, Yanjun found out with glee when they walked together the first time. (“We should totally have a sleepover once”, he beamed and Zhangjing returned the gesture with the same enthusiasm when he agreed.)
After a couple of weeks it was as if Zhangjing had always been there. He was in on most of their inside jokes at that point and Yanjun was 100 percent he’d cry and lock himself up in his sock drawer for days if he had to leave. The thought of Zhangjing’s smile not brightening up his day was almost painful.
To some extent he guessed he was probably a little too trusting of Zhangjing.
"Yo werewolfy."
Yanjun stopped dead in his tracks from where he was returning from the restroom. That taunting voice couldn’t belong to anyone but Shuijiao. The bully that had also used to have a go at Xiao Gui before they'd become friends. It couldn’t be directed at anyone but Zhangjing either.
"What do you want now?", Zhangjing asked, clearly trying to sound as if he didn't care, but Zhangjing heard the underlying tenseness, heard the small skip of his heart. The way it got when he was afraid or nervous. Same as with humans.
Yanjun felt a subconscious wave of excitement run through him and was disgusted with himself immediately. It was a feeling most of them still felt whenever a living being showed signs of fear. Like a predator with its prey. Yanjun knew for a fact that it was because his kind had used to hunt humans and other beings. They'd once enjoyed the thrill of it. They didn’t do that anymore, though. Hadn’t for thousands of years, but Yanjun knew there were still vampires out there that would like to go back to their primitive ways. He knew for a fact that Shuijiao and his little friends were among them.
"Aww, are you scared, little pup?", he heard him taunt. His blood began to boil as Zhangjing’s heart began to beat even more erratically. It made his blood flow faster, making his sweet scent all the most intense and it took all Yanjun had to try and not sniff the air like some sort of fucking freak. It was that what made him stay out of sight, he didn’t think he could trust himself to stand too close to Zhangjing right now.
"I'm warning you for the last time, leave me alone", Zhangjing snapped. The bully laughed loudly.
"Or what? You're gonna ask your little friends to take care of it?", he asked and his friends joined his taunting laughter. Zhangjing was quiet for a while. Yanjun did his best to calm down in the meantime. Zhangjing needed him to help him, not be a fucking coward and stand just around the corner without doing anything.
"You're pathetic, you know that? Preying on those who are weaker than you", Zhangjing snarled eventually. His heart was still beating fast, but Yanjun knew now that it was more because of anger now than because of fear.
By the time Shuijiao spoke again he didn’t sound amused anymore. "I thought you were supposed to be just as strong as us, dog. Guess I was wrong. I bet you can't even fucking-"
Zhangjing let out a hiss of pain and Yanjun finally decided that it had been enough. He abruptly rounded the corner and tired not to show how much Zhangjing’s scent affected him as it hit him twice as hard. Instead he grinned languidly, strolling over to them.
Zhangjing looked at him with pain clear in his eyes as Shuijiao bend his arm in a crude way. As Yanjun got closer he quickly let go of the smaller boy, who stumbled back a little. Yanjun put an arm around Zhangjing’s shoulder, deciding it was better not to breathe for a while.
"What's up, my dudes? No trouble here, I hope?", Yanjun asked with a grin that was anything but kind.
Shuijiao quickly looked away and shook his head.
"Let's get outta here", he mumbled to his two goons, who quickly followed him out of the corridor. He stared after them, honestly wishing looks could kill. Zhangjing looked up at him and gave him an awkward smile, unlike his usual beams, his heartbeat already slowing down. Yanjun's smile dropped, though.
"How long have they been bothering you?", he asked Zhangjing stiffly. Letting go of him and quickly taking some steps back to at least put some distance between them. He was starting to feel lightheaded.
"Since the first day I got here. But I’ve been-"
"And you didn’t think of telling us?", he snarled, abruptly putting a hand in front of his nose. Zhangjing fell silent and stared at him, confusion and hurt swimming in his eyes as he obviously tried to look for some sort of reason for Yanjun’s sudden change of demeanor.
"Zhangjing, those guys are bad news. Like really, really bad news. You should’ve come to us", he continued, less harsh this time. He took his hand away again when he came to the conclusion that it didn’t help much anyway.
"Well, excuse me for assuming I didn't need you guys to protect me at all times", Zhangjing said snidely, but Yanjun could see that the hurt was still there.
"No, no. You don't understand. They're literal monsters. They once almost killed Xiao Gui once. We've been protecting him ever since", Yanjun said quickly. Zhangjing's expression changed to one of horror as he asked in a small voice: "What do you mean, they almost killed him once?"
"Last year they just snapped one day. They were picking on him like usual, but he fought back. Shuijiao hadn’t fed in a while. I guess it all got too much. He was on Xiao Gui and sucking him dry before he even had the chance to do anything. If we didn’t arrive when we did", Yanjun shuddered at the memory. "I don’t know what would've happened."
Zhangjing looked rather pale as his heart rate picked up again. "How...how was I supposed to-?"
"No, you couldn’t have known. Of course you couldn’t have. But Zhangjing, know how to pick your battles, man.", Yanjun said stiffly. Zhangjing looked at his feet, shuffling uncomfortably. "Know when to ask for help."
It made Yanjun feel bad for lashing out, but he needed Zhangjing to know. Also, he needed to get away from Zhangjing right now before doing something he regretted. Not that he'd ever hurt Zhangjing, but he could literally feel himself aching to bury his face in Zhangjing's throat and he knew that would mostly probably not be appreciated. So he quickly made up some bullshit excuse and fled the scene, ignoring the confused look on Zhangjing’s face.