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Joakim knew and understood a lot of things in his life, like for example why the sky looked a certain way when the sun rose or why certain things expire so quickly… but there were two things that he could never really understand and those were his two friends Pär and Hannes.
He didn’t understand why they disliked the morning so much, or why all of their gigs had to be at night time, or how whenever he approached them to give them food they would always tell him that they ate earlier or didn’t feel hungry.
Hell, he couldn’t really understand why they both often felt incredibly cold to the touch, almost like living corpses, so he’d often cover them in blankets in hope that it would help them regain any lost body heat.
But they’d always tell him to ‘not worry! I’m fine like this… it’s normal trust me!’ and he couldn’t believe that it was ‘normal’, after all, how can a human being be so cold to the touch that you can compare it to touching a dead body?
He also found the gaze of their icy blue eyes to be extremely enchanting, he’d often find himself just staring at them. Often getting teased or called out on his blatant staring, which he would almost always blush, turn his head away, and apologize.
Perhaps these men were just naturally like this? Who knows… certainly not Joakim, as he could never come up with any good enough or solid answers to his inquiries.
Well, one supposes that Joakim would have to search for his answers some other day…
Or maybe not?
Either way, today was a very important day for the band, as they all had been invited to stay at a hotel and celebrate with a party the success of the band’s 100th tour!
It was a very special occasion and the booze was free-flowing, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the music was also good. Overall, it was a very enjoyable atmosphere, however, Joakim was currently on the balcony of his room, away from the party to get a breather.
He had been feeling suffocated in the partying atmosphere and felt that he needed to be away for a short while, after all, once he felt better he would go back downstairs to join everyone.
Someone cleared their throat behind Joakim, it made him jump and he turned around to see who it was.
Pär leaned on the door frame, his icy blue eyes stuck on Joakim’s form, “Why aren’t you downstairs?” he asks him
Joakim doesn’t answer, instead, he looks down to the floor and turns his head away from him, so as to avoid eye contact.
That stare could slice a man open in half, and for some reason, he felt incredibly intimidated by it.
“I-I uh…” he sputtered out for a moment, “I don’t feel well… wanted some alone time…”
Pär hummed but seemed to not believe him, he approached his friend, walking into the room and over to the balcony where he was.
Pär could see that Joakim was cold, the goosebumps on his arms very evident, as well as the elevated heartbeat that rang in his ears, his body was working hard to keep him warm.
“You should go inside, it's warmer than on the balcony…” Pär stated
Joakim still wasn’t looking at him, deciding to look elsewhere, “Nah, I like it here…”
“You’ll get cold though…”
“…” silence, Joakim didn’t reply back, Pär was looking at him and he could see the invisible gears turning in his head.
“…Hey…Pär…?” Joakim asks, finally breaking the silence after a while, now turned to look at him in the eyes.
Pär attentively watched him, their eyes locked, icy blue meeting grass green.
“…You’re always so cold… why is that? Is it some sort of medical condition?” he asks his friend.
‘aw, he’s worried… how cute…’ Pär resists the urge to smile at him,
“Ah, I believe so…” is all he replies with.
Joakim nods, his gaze moving down to his hands, he’s wringing them nervously.
“Are you o-?”
“-Is it life-threatening?” Joakim asks, “Are you going to d-?“
“Joakim, I won’t die… that I can promise you…” Pär explains wholeheartedly
“…But how can you be so sure?” Joakim asks, “I’ve known you almost my whole life, and I-“ he stops, he swallowed thickly, there was a ‘lump’ forming in his throat, as tears threatened to fall.
Pär frowned, he could see just how worried he was, perhaps the poor fool had been overthinking about his health so much that, that may be the true reason why he wasn’t at the party.
He could hear his heart starting to beat quicker in the other’s chest, the incessant drumming incredibly tempting for him to just silence with one swift bite.
But Pär fought those carnal feelings down, instead, he focused on the man in front of him, although he may be mortal, he was still his friend, someone whom he cared for dearly in his cold dead soul.
He stepped forward and reached out his cold hand to Joakim’s cheek, the sudden frigid sensation made him shiver, a small and stifled whimper escaping his lips, “I don’t want to lose you, Pär…” a single tear rolled down before another one followed suit.
Pär shook his head and enveloped his friend in a hug, “I won’t ever leave your side, Joakim…” he promised him, and this was true.
Joakim held him, he didn’t say anything else, instead just held his friend as a few more tears spilled over.
Pär eventually broke away from the hug for a moment to place a kiss on his forehead, it was a loving gesture.
Before any of them could say anything else a voice spoke up, startling Joakim and surprising Pär.
“Oh, that’s cute… so this is why you’re not downstairs? A secret make-out session?” teased Hannes, clearly still ever the jokester.
Pär frowned at the younger, “No” was all he said, and Joakim could tell that he was annoyed at the stupid comment Hannes made.
Hannes walked in the room, shutting the door behind him, arms up in mocking defense, “Easy man… I was just worried where Joakim had gone to…” he explained to the elder man.
His gaze then turned to Joakim, when he saw the tear-stained cheeks, as well as he, could tell how cold he was he got worried, “Woah, what’s wrong, why are you crying? And aren’t you cold?” he asked him.
Joakim opened his mouth to reply but Pär beat him to it, “He’s ah… been worried over my health and likely yours as well, Hannes…” Pär explained, hoping that the younger would understand what he was getting at.
Hannes got the hint and nodded, he knew exactly what the elder meant, and deciding on not having this conversation on the balcony, he grabbed Joakim’s hand and lead him inside the room, with Pär following close behind.
Pär shut the balcony Victorian windows shut, and followed the two.
Hannes made his way over to the bed and took off his shoes as he sat down on it, patting the open space in front of him to Joakim, indicating to him to sit.
Joakim blushed lightly but accepted the offer and sat down in front of Hannes, he wanted to ask what he had in plan but didn’t really say anything. He was shivering, his body temperature low, perhaps not low enough to kill, but low enough to get him sick.
Pär sat behind Joakim, he grabbed a decorative blanket that was placed on the bed and wrapped it around Joakim, he began rubbing the others back, hoping that the friction would produce enough heat to warm him up.
Joakim let out a surprised gasp but didn’t fight his friend, instead, he welcomed it, his cheeks flushed pink from the cold.
“How do you feel now? Still sad and worried?” Hannes asked as he watched him
Joakim looked up at him and gave him an odd look.
“What?”
“I still feel a tiny bit worried…” Joakim confessed as he avoided his gaze.
Hannes hummed in acknowledgment, and looked over the shoulder of Joakim’s to Pär who was frowning lightly, they both understood that humans can be such complicated creatures, both of them having had many past lovers and having dealt with them already.
But it never stopped surprising them just how complex they are, perhaps that’s what kept them interested in them after all those years.
Pär hummed behind Joakim, he wrapped his arms around him, they rested on the other’s waist, “You’re always so worried Joakim…” he purred out
Joakim leaned back into his touch and nodded, “Of course I am… I’m worried about you two… I care about you both…”
Hannes smiled warmly at him, his sharp canines coming into view “And we do too…” he purred back, placing a kiss on Joakim’s forehead, a loving and affectionate display to his friend.
Joakim melted at the kiss, his eyes closing briefly as he took in the feeling of the cold lips on his warm body.
For a moment he felt safe, like nothing wrong could happen, but somehow, in the back of his head, he still felt very worried over both of them…
Pär chuckled and smiled behind him, “I think you deserve to unwind…” he commented as he began massaging the other’s shoulders, his skilled fingers already getting two knots out.
Joakim let out a gasp and a groan as the feeling of the two knots coming undone in his back, he relaxed and sighed contently.
“So, what’s got you all worked up, huh? Do you want to talk about it more? Maybe it’ll let you get some of that nasty pent up energy and bad thoughts out of your system…” Offered Hannes.
Joakim let out a sigh, perhaps Hannes was right, letting all of these bad thoughts stay inside of him was doing no good for him, it would end up making his head spin if he kept it inside, eating away at him.
He sighed, his eyes moving to look down at his hands, he didn’t want to look at him as he spoke about his worries,
“I-…It’s just that recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how you two are always constantly cold to the touch, you’re only awake at night, you two actively avoid sunlight, I’ve never seen you two eat, yet you claim to have had eaten-“
He stopped himself, taking in a shaky breath
“-I’m just scared that it’s some sort of illness that you two are keeping away from me, and I don’t want to wake up one day and have you both dead in your sleep…” He finished with a whine, he was crying and had tears rolling down his cheeks.
Pär stopped massaging Joakim’s back when he had begun explaining his worries, now he sat behind the man, his arms at the sides of his body, he and Hannes had their eyes locked in on each other.
Silently they were having a debate amongst each other on what to do about this situation,
On one hand, they both knew that they could just lie to Joakim and come up with an excuse that it’s a rare disease that they both have but it’s not fatal,
Or, they could just tell him the truth.
Joakim sniffled, wiping away at his tears “P-Please tell me I won’t lose both of you…” he cried out, his voice wavering.
Pär shoot his head at Hannes, they wouldn’t lie to him, instead, they’d just go with the truth and tell him all of it, because hell, if he didn’t accept them they could just leave the band.
As sad and as difficult as that would be, that was their final alternative…
Pär wrapped his arms around Joakim from behind, Hannes shuffled closer and wrapped his long slender arms around both of them as best he could.
“The truth is Joakim-…” Pär opened his mouth and began explaining to Joakim in a way that he could best understand, his origins of how he was bitten and cursed by another vampire to become one, with Hannes also falling to the same ill fate.
Joakim tentatively listened as both of his friends explained the predicament that had plagued them.
And suddenly, everything in his head had begun to click, from their behavior to everything else.
After a while of explanation was said and done, the vampiric duo now sat in front of Joakim so that he could get a better look at them.
Joakim was eerily quiet, he wasn’t saying anything, rather taking in all the information.
The gears in his head constantly twisting and turning,
He was thinking of something…
“Joakim…?” Hannes asked, nervous that their friend would reject them
“…would you like us to leave the band?” Pär suggested to which Hannes was about to argue with him on, but the younger was swiftly silenced by Pär, “-It’s his choice, not ours” he reminded him.
Joakim shook his head, “No, I don’t…” he finally spoke
The two looked at him as if he had grown a tail, “What? Really?” they both asked in unison, clearly surprised.
Joakim nodded, confirming and solidifying what he said, “I don’t want you two to leave… I’m just overall happy to know that neither of you isn’t deathly ill…” he breathed out in relief
“…Will you tell Chris and Tommy about this?” Pär asked,
“Maybe not now… perhaps one day when they’re ready for it, or maybe never, who knows…” Joakim spoke, he wasn’t too sure how those two would take the news of their friend being cursed vampires.
“So, what do we do now, then?” Hannes asked
“Well, I’ll have to tell the others that we’re going to shift our sleep schedules around for you two-“
“-You don’t have to-“
“-I do! You’re my friends! And I want to still do things with you two, there’s absolutely no way in hell that I’m going to be asleep while you two are awake and vice versa!” Joakim protested
“You’d do that…? For Us?” Pär added
Joakim nodded, “Yes…” he spoke with sincerity.
Pär and Hannes looked at each other in disbelief, they then turned to Joakim,
“You’re taking all of this surprisingly well….” Hannes added, still confused if he had heard them correctly
“Joakim, you did hear us when we talked to you… right?” Pär asked, now he was worried for his health.
Joakim laughed at their confused faces, a big genuine hearty laugh, “Yes! Yes, I did!”
“And you’re one-hundred percent sure you’re ok with this?” Hannes asked, to confirm
Joakim gave them a nod, “Yes”
“You sure?”
“Yes”
“Bu-“
“Do you want me to say it in Swedish and in Czech too?” Joakim teased, a happy grin on his face
Hannes rolled his eyes and laughed too, yeah Joakim was more than ok with all of this and accepting of it all, despite just how absurd it must sound.
Pär sighed happily, “Oh thank god…” He pulled Joakim into a deep hug, “I’m so glad to have had met you…” he spoke
Joakim pulled Hannes into the hug as well and tenderly squeezed both of them, “Me too…” he smiled
“One question though…” Joakim asked
Both pulled away from the hug and looked at him with curiosity, “Yeah?” replied Hannes
“Vampires drink ‘blood’ so how do you two…?” he asked, worried that he might not like the answer.
“We try to refrain on feeding on humans, although that’s not always successful because sometimes we do have to feed on them, but we generally like to stick to just animal blood, like dogs, cats, or rats…” Pär explained
“Yeah, and when we do have to feed on a human, we uh “enchant” them, think of it as temporary memory loss and only take a small part of their blood, we’d never kill someone…” Hannes added on to the explanation.
Joakim looked at Pär for validity on that statement, Pär nodded “He’s telling the truth, we never hunt alone but together so I can attest to that…” he confirmed.
Joakim nodded, he was thankful for the answer, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about having the cops called on them.
“But…Uhm… can we just make a few things clear?” Hannes began
“No crosses, no holy places, no garlic, and absolutely no sunlight or blessed items…” Joakim sounded off, listing everything that came to his mind of what vampires cannot be around from his knowledge of novels that he read as a kid.
“Yeah, it looks like he’s got it all down, were safe with him!” proudly announced Pär as he gave Joakim a nice big toothy grin and another hug.
Hannes laughed out loud, “Oh yeah, definitely!”
Thankfully, it would seem that everything was fine and the group would just have to eventually learn to live with the new changes…