Chapter Text
Seungkwan had been nervous about many aspects of university life.
He was anxious about leaving the close knit bubble of his family unit. It had just been his dad, his brother, and him for as long as he could remember. They had moved all around the world to strange and distant places, but they had always been together.
He was worried he wouldn’t fit in with the people he would want to be his friends. He’d had what most would consider a nontraditional upbringing and was concerned that he’d have difficulty connecting and finding common ground with the people around him.
He was stressed about university culture: the drinking, the drugs, the Pot Noodle. It had taken enough convincing to get his dad to allow him to come in the first place so he had to make sure he remained squeaky clean, but somehow still had fun. And passed all of his courses, preferably with flying colours.
So, Seungkwan had a lot of things to be nervous about.
But what hadn’t crossed his mind, not even for a second, not even in his wildest dreams, was the possibility of running head-first, quite literally, into a vampire at his first ever Halloween party.
Goosebumps raised on his skin as soon as he entered the room. Something was wrong, but the room was too crowded for him to work out what straight away. His skin crawled as the music throbbed through him and his hand slipped out of Vernon’s firm grasp as they battled their way through to the kitchen.
The house wasn’t big, but more people than Seungkwan would have ever thought possible were crammed into it, sweaty skin - as much of it as possible in some cases - pressed against each other.
Panic rang in his eardrums as he tried to press his way through as politely as he could muster, but the partygoers were already too far gone to show any pity for a nervous Fresher. He was jostled one way and then the other, not making any progress.
The song changed, turned into something upbeat and nostalgic which made the crowd cheer, their dancing becoming even more exuberant. An elbow connected with Seungkwan’s spine and he stumbled, the crowd suddenly parting for him now rather than breaking his fall.
But before he could reach the ground, a firm hand wrapped around his upper arm, just below his armpit, steadying him and holding him up.
“Woah, kid, you good?” The man’s voice was deep but light, laughter spilling out the edges of the sound. Seungkwan felt the tips of his ears blush and his heart start to pulse in his throat as he raised his eyes to take in his saviour’s face.
And his body froze over.
He wrenched his arm out of the man’s grasp, his face pulling into a scowl at the flicker of hurt which danced across the stranger’s features. His skin tingled where the man’s hand had gripped him and his attention whipped to the needle thin piece of wood nestled against his forearm under his shirt - something his father had made him swear to carry with him, no matter where he went or what he was doing.
Glancing around, Seungkwan leaned in to the man. He was tall, almost rudely so, and still looking at him with a mixture of confusion and upset in his eyes. “I know what you are,” Seungkwan said, as subtly as he could whilst still making himself clearly heard.
“You do?” The man tilted his head, his brow furrowing.
Seungkwan nodded hastily. “A vampire,” he growled, the word poisonous on his tongue.
To his surprise, the man laughed, full bellied. “And what was it that gave it away?” he asked. “My fangs or my cape?” He wafted the cheap material in Seungkwan’s face, making him frown deeper.
“No,” he said calmly, one hand gripping the front of the tall man’s shirt, the other catching the needle with a practiced movement. “It was your eyes.”
All humour crept out of the man’s face and his hand came to rest on top of Seungkwan’s, not quite moving it away, but enough strength in it to remind him that he could if he needed to. Seungkwan’s hand tightened on the needle in his grip, and the man’s eyes flickered down to take it in. “Let’s not do anything…rash, kid,” he muttered, his voice suddenly low. They light grey circle around his pupil - the very thing that had exposed him to Seungkwan - inched closer to a dangerous silver.
Seungkwan’s heart was now rabbiting in his chest, but the hand holding the needle was steady. Years of training told him he should just slot it between their bodies; slide it between the man’s third and fourth ribs, just to the left of his sternum. He knew the numbers to call for help with cleanup, knew the way things would likely pan out. His mind was already running down that track, his fingers twitching around the needle. His muscle tensed in anticipation.
“Hey, Seungkwan, here you are. ” Seokmin’s voice was loud and his face was flushed already from the heat of the party as well as, perhaps, the bottle of wine Seungkwan had seen him drink at the pres. He backed up, surprised, when he noticed Seungkwan’s proximity to the tall man, but then his face fell into a sly grin. “I see you’ve met Mingyu.”
Seungkwan froze. “You…know him?” He was still gripping the thin needle, his palm going numb.
“Yeah,” Seokmin said cheerfully, throwing an arm around Mingyu’s shoulders and forcing Seungkwan to drop his hold on his shirt. “We lived together last year,” he explained.
Mingyu hadn’t taken his eyes of Seungkwan this whole interaction. His face was still tense, his hand slightly raised. Seokmin seemed to notice this and pulled his arm back from Mingyu’s shoulders, looking quizzically between the two of them. “Well,” he hesitated, a hint of laughter still dancing in his eyes, “we’ve taken up most of the garage if you guys want to come join us once you’re finished…whatever this is.”
The moment to strike lost, Seungkwan moved to follow Seokmin as he shuffled his way through the crowd, which was now pressing in even more firmly than before. Before he could get more than a step, Mingyu’s large hand curled around his wrist and he flinched at the lack of heat which pressed into his skin. “Can we talk?”
Scoffing, Seungkwan turned back to cast his eyes up and down Mingyu’s body. “About what? You’ll rip my head off as soon as we get outside. No thanks.”
He tried to pull his arm free, but Mingyu’s grip remained firm at his wrist. He rolled his eyes at Seungkwan’s words. “I’m not going to rip anybody’s head off, kid. I just need to talk to you before you do anything…rash.”
Seungkwan bristled at the word ‘kid’, his eyes narrowing. “Fine, but I’m texting Seokmin to call the police if he doesn’t see me in ten minutes.”
The line of Mingyu’s shoulders relaxed a little and he released his grip on Seungkwan. “Ten minutes, max.” He began shouldering his way through the bodies around them, Seungkwan trailing in his wake.
The air outside was brisk and Seungkwan’s Dr Frankenstein costume was so thin it bordered on useless against the biting air that licked around them. He wrapped his arms tightly around his body, telling himself it was just against the chill.
“So, you’re a vampire hunter?” Mingyu was leaning against the low brick wall, one foot cockily propped up.
Seungkwan half-nodded jerkily. “My family are vampire hunters. I’m a business student.”
“Ew,” Mingyu shuddered, “that’s actually worse.”
Seungkwan scowled at him. “Shut up,” he snapped. “You have ten minutes to convince me not to stab you in the heart. Insulting me isn’t the best way to go about that.”
Sighing, Mingyu pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his back pocket. Offering one to Seunkwan, who wrinkled his nose in distaste, he lit it with deft ease. “Okay, what do you want to know?”
“Um,” Seungkwan made a vague, sweeping gesture with his arms in Mingyu’s direction, “everything? Why is a vampire at university? What are you doing here? Why should I not kill you? Shall we start with those?”
Mingyu took a long drag from his cigarette, the glowing tip casting shadows on his face. “Maybe I’m at university because I just really love analysing Tennyson’s work.” The smirk on his lips irks Seungkwan in the way it catches his attention. “And you shouldn’t kill me because I’m not hurting anyone.”
The laugh broke free from Seungkwan’s throat before he could stop himself. “Not hurting anyone? Tell me exactly how that works, bloodsucker.” If he flinched at the sheet of ice that formed behind Mingyu’s eyes when he said that word, he tried not to let it show.
“I can show you, if you’ll let me.” Mingyu’s voice was quiet, bordering on sulky. “I can prove to you I’m not a threat.”
Seungkwan’s blood chilled. “And give you yet another chance to eat the entrails out of my still warm insides? Again, no thank you.”
Discarding the butt of his cigarette, Mingyu pushed away from the wall, leaning in closer to Seungkwan. He smelt of smoke and danger, and Seungkwan forced himself to turn his head away a little. “I’m really so not interested in your entrails, kid,” he said. “I just don’t want you after me for the next three years until you graduate.” He hopped over the low wall and into the street. “You coming?”
Seungkwan glanced back towards the house, towards the warm yellow lights and the dull thrum of music and laughter. The appeal of the safety of unity, of large numbers.
Then he launched himself over the wall and into the dark.