Chapter Text
1)
When Taehyung met Jeongguk for the first time, it was with the others in shackles.
They’d been hearing rumours about Jihoon’s coven for months; rumours about him and his coven engaging with humans in an unsafe environment. Which in itself would already be something profoundly prohibited since humans found themselves protected by various laws. Laws that the vampire council had passed after an agreement of coexistence had been found between humans and vampires.
While before there were no consequences in drinking a human’s blood against their will, after multiple uprisings and decade long tension a treaty finally had been formed and settled into place which would become the new norm for vampires and humans.
To ensure that these new regulations were followed, a council of coven leaders had been appointed to be a set example and, if need be, pass judgement over those breaking the treaty.
When Taehyung met Jeongguk for the first time, he was covered in bite marks. New and old.
Taehyung had worked hard for his position in the council.
Being one of the youngest members with barely 100 years to his own name when he’d been appointed successor to his father (who had tragically been killed in a scuffle between two opposing fractions of vampires) had always left him dismissed by the other counsellors, who’d rarely lend him their ears when he tried to contribute to the matter at hand. But that hadn’t stopped him.
That now, passing the age of 300, he would actively be sought out to be asked for advice. He’d worked his ass off for nearly two centuries to sit on his seat in the council, head held high and being praised for the work he’d done to assure that vampires and humans could live in somewhat harmony.
Of course, there were always those that had to step out of line, those that would oppose the council’s ways and were still living in the old ways.
Which was how he had ended up in the confines of Jihoon’s coven.
When Taehyung met Jeongguk for the first time, his eyes looked as if he’d given up.
He could hear Jihoon growling against the grip Yoongi and Hoseok had on him. Could hear Namjoon converse with some of the other coven members about the vampires they had arrested, making sure none had gotten away.
His eyes though were trained on the lump of a body Jimin was kneeling next to, talking to them in a hushed whisper. “It’s alright. Shhh, it’s alright.”
He let his eyes wander across their body and felt something heavy settle in his stomach at the multiple bitemarks and open wounds littering their skin. Some of them looked to be infected, dried blood clinging to the edges. Heavy chains were locked around their wrists and ankles, making them look even smaller than they appeared to be.
Then Jimin gently raised their head, his hands cupping the other’s cheeks while he was whispering reassuring words to them, the chains rustling with the movement in the quiet room. Their eyes stared into the room from beneath a choppy fringe, matted to their forehead by sweat and dirt. Hollow. Lifeless.
“Taehyung?” Jimin’s voice pulled Taehyung out of his thoughts. “What shall we do with him?”
The coven leader could not take his eyes off the boy. He felt something move deep inside of him at the state the boy was in. Was it anger? Disappointment in his own kind? Something else? He couldn’t place it.
His mouth moved faster than his mind in making a decision.
“Free him, and bring him back to the coven. Have Seokjin treat him.”
He didn’t wait for Jimin to answer him, knowing the blond vampire would follow his order without question. He had other matters to attend to.
Hoseok and Yoongi were already awaiting him when he set foot in what once was a rather refined looking living room, now painted in red from those that stood in their way. Trying to protect their supposed leader, who now was nothing more than a whimpering mess on the floor.
Yoongi glanced up from where he was lounging in one of the chairs, a book in his hands leisurely skimming through it. “He’s all yours.”
He stepped closer, saw the way Jihoon flinched and it filled him with satisfaction. “You’ve disappointed me, Jihoon.” The other vampire didn’t raise his head. “Time and time again you’ve been let off with a warning, but your charade ends now.” He motioned with his hand for Hoseok to take notes. “Trespassing onto human territory. Disguising yourself as a human and luring innocent people into false safety before trading them off for your own benevolence. Not to mention, keeping a human locked in your rooms, in chains nonetheless.”
Hoseok’s pen halted on the paper, eyes zooming from Jihoon to Taehyung. “A human? Here?”
Taehyung nodded. “Jimin is tending to him.”
“How did he look?”
“Unwell. Covered in old and new bitemarks. No doubt he was fed from multiple times.”
“Poor thing.” Hoseok’s eyes turned sad, his free hand reaching up to trace the scars on his neck. He knew how it felt like; being used as nothing else but a source of blood. Knew what pain came with it.
Taehyung closed his eyes for a moment, nodding with a resigned sigh. When he opened them again he looked directly into Jihoon’s, the other having lifted his head. “Got anything to say for yourself?”
“I did it for our own kind,” His voice was rough, like he’d been choked. Taehyung could make out faint bruises on his neck.
“For our kind?” Yoongi scoffed. “Bullshit. You did it for your own gain. Earned yourself a pretty penny, eh? And for what? Destroying lives? Families?”
“You don’t understand. He is not like them.”
Taehyung raised an eyebrow. “He?”
“The boy. He…He-He’s different. His blood.” Jihoon licked his lips, and Taehyung saw the hunger in his eyes. “It is…After you’ve tasted it…nothing will…you’ll be invincible.”
“You’ve kidnapped him. Held him prisoner.”
“No one else could have him.”
“You’ve hurt others. Sold them. Sold their blood.”
“I had to find him first. Needed more. The money was good.”
“What happened to you, Jihoon?” This was not the vampire he once knew. Not the vampire that would greet him with a cheerful “Taehyung-ssi” every time he’d enter the council halls. This was a monster, and it had tasted blood in other ways than a vampire would. Got obsessed.
The sound of a gasp had all four of them turn their heads.
Jimin had come downstairs, one arm tightly wrapped around the boy’s shoulder while the other was hooked underneath the boy’s knees. He was talking to the other, voice animated and cheery, that he’d make sure he would be well taken care of.
But the boy’s eyes were locked on Jihoon. Unblinking.
Taehyung moved before anyone else did in the room, his arms barely catching Jihoon when he’d pushed himself off the floor, lunging at the door. Yoongi was beside him in an instant, wrestling the struggling vampire into a chokehold where he held him steadily, his teeth bared in a threatening growl.
“Take him away, Yoongi.” He watched with growing concern the way Jihoon continued to struggle against Yoongi’s hold as he was dragged away, his eyes a sheen of red - blood lust.
When he turned back around he found the boy still staring, but this time at him.
Taehyung wondered what they’d look like if life would return to them.
2)
“What do you mean ‘gone’?”
“I couldn’t properly see, because he hid away the moment I entered the room, but it looked like all of his wounds were gone. Healed.”
“That’s not possible.”
“You tell me, Taehyung.” Seokjin shrugged with a helpless look on his face, pushing the door open with his hip. “I would love to confirm it, but…”
Taehyung followed the motion of Seokjin’s hand and felt his shoulder droop with a compassionate sigh. There, from the closet in the corner of the room, was a pair of eyes staring at them from between the cracked open door.
A few days had passed since their raid of Jihoon’s coven, who had been taken into custody and was to face trial in the upcoming weeks. By Taehyung’s calculations he would not see the light of day in quite a few decades, if not longer.
Ever since then Taehyung had been focusing on gathering as much information as possible about Jihoon’s shady business that he’d been hiding from the council, trying to trace back the former coven leader’s tracks to find his accomplices. Fruitless thus far. They were hiding well in the shadows.
Meanwhile their newest guest, the boy they’d found that day, had been taken into one of the guest rooms of their coven, where he was looked after by Seokjin and Jimin. While he’d been mostly unresponsive at first, resting for the majority of the day, Seokjin had reported to him yesterday that the boy had begun hiding in the closet whenever someone would enter the room, making it impossible for his wounds to be treated since he would not answer to any type of coaxing.
He was scared.
Taehyung could see it in the way his eyes widened briefly when he saw the vampire approach, but Taehyung kept his distance and slowly fell into a crouch a tad bit away from where the boy was hiding. His eyes followed him the whole time.
“Hello,” He kept his voice levelled and calm. “We’ve met before. Do you remember me?”
No answer.
“You’ve been through quite a lot.” He continued, faintly hearing the movements of Seokjin making the bed. “And you are still hurt. Why don’t you come out here and let our medic take a look at you? I’m sure your bandages are in need of a change.”
The boy’s eyes widened and he could make out a slight head shake, the door being pulled a tad bit more shut.
“We do not wish to harm you, we simply want to help,” But his words seemed to do nothing for the boy, who only shook his head harder. Taehyung held his hand up in a soothing gesture. “Alright. We will not force you.”
He glanced back over his shoulder at Seokjin, who shrugged in a helpless manner, and when Taehyung turned around again he’d found that the closet door had opened a tad bit once more, a pair of wary eyes staring at him from within.
“May I at least have a look at your arm? To know if there is any need for medical assistance. The bites there seemed very deep.” When the boy didn’t immediately deny his request, he added in what he hoped was a soothing voice. “Please.”
For a few seemingly endless moments nothing happened and Taehyung was about to give in, leave the boy be so they could try later again, when he heard the creaking of wood and when he turned his head he saw a pale arm sticking out of the gap.
The coven leader was too stunned to speak for a moment, because just as Seokjin had said no bite mark, no rupture of the skin, nothing could be seen on the boy’s skin. It looked to be in proper condition and health.
When he saw the boy’s fingers starting to shake, he forced his lips to move. “Thank you for showing me. You can retrieve your arm now.” Taehyung hadn’t even finished his sentence and the boy had already pulled his arm back into the closet. Wide eyes were now once again staring at him from the dark and he mustered a smile. “It is good to know you are doing well. Make yourself as comfortable as you can. I will make sure no one will disturb you.”
He waited for any kind of response, but was once again left hanging so he pushed himself into a stand after one last nod in the boy’s direction.
Seokjin followed him immediately out of the room when Taehyung turned around.
“Do you see what I mean, Taehyung? His wounds. Gone.”
“I do.” The coven leader hummed in thought. “That can only mean one thing. The boy is not human.”
3)
Taehyung learned of the boy’s nightmares a month into him staying at their coven.
He’d been staying up late once again, swarmed by paperwork from the council, and he could feel a light tiredness settling in. Vampires had no need for sleep, yet many still enjoyed it for it could give one the relaxation and escape from the real world that nothing else but a dreamless sleep could provide.
The words on the paper had started to blur together from the amount of yawns he’d been suppressing, more out of boredom than fatigue, small tears collecting in the corners of his eyes.
That’s when he’d first heard them.
Small whimpers, easy to miss even for a vampire’s sensitive hearing.
Taehyung looked up from the contract he’d been reading over, the blood almost sloshing over the rim of the glass when he stopped the small circling motion he’d been making.
For a moment he had thought to have imagined them, the noises having stopped, and he was about to return to his paperwork when the whimpers reached his ears once more.
Growing curious, and also a tad concerned, Taehyung pushed out of his chair, glass now abandoned on his desk, and followed the noises, the wood of the hallways creaking under his shoes, only a few candles providing light in this late hour.
When his feet stopped in front of their guest’s door, he was hesitant, not wanting to intrude. Maybe he should get Seokjin, even though the elder didn’t like to be disturbed in his sleep, not when it was one of the rare nights Namjoon and he had to themselves.
Hoseok then maybe, he surely would know what to do.
A particularly loud whimper though had Taehyung turn the doorknob faster than he was able to realise, his eyes immediately zoning in on the lump of blankets on the bed. He could make out the shivering shape of the person underneath it.
The coven leader made sure to make as little sound as possible when closing the door, before he rounded the bed.
Taehyung felt something move within his undead heart when the face of the boy came into view, eyebrows knit together, his bottom lip trembling and knuckles turning white from how hard he was gripping onto the sheets.
It was quite obvious the boy was having a nightmare, troubled whines continuing to spill from his mouth.
Maybe I should wake him, Taehyung thought to himself, one of his hands already reaching out to settle on the boy’s shoulder.
He did not even get the chance to touch it, when a hand shot out to wrap around Taehyung’s wrist.
It startled him for just a moment before he looked down, finding the boy staring at him with wide eyes. He looked afraid, his gaze jumping in between the vampire’s hand and face.
“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Taehyung made sure to speak in a low, even tone. “Though that apology might be a bit late.” No answer, but the boy didn’t take his eyes off him. So he continued. “I heard noises coming from your room, and grew concerned. You seemed to be having a nightmare.”
The boy drew the blanket a tad closer to him, now tucked tightly under his chin. In the moonlight coming from the windows Taehyung caught the shadows under the boy’s eyes, he slowly dropped onto one knee, cautious to not move too quickly.
“Do they happen quite frequently?” The boy’s eyes found his again, questioning. “The nightmares?”
It took a little while, and Taehyung was almost sure he wouldn’t get an answer when the other slowly nodded.
“Are they about your time in captivity?”
He didn’t move his head, but the solemn look in his eyes was answer enough to Taehyung. He could not begin to imagine what he’d gone through, how long he’d been there (although they had a pretty good guess going by Jihoon’s testimony). His physical wounds might have healed, but the ones you couldn’t see with the naked eye remained.
Taehyung didn’t know what made him ask the following question that night, but something in him wanted to see a different look in the boy’s eyes. So he let it slip past his lips.
“Would you like me to read you a story?”
Curious doe eyes met his, his head tilting in question into the pillow.
“We both don’t seem to be quite ready to sleep yet, so why not pass the time with something a bit more delightful?”
He waited, to see if the boy would take his offer and found himself pleasantly surprised when he eventually nodded. So he pushed himself into a stand, the boy’s hand slipping from his wrist, and stepped over to the small bookshelf in the corner of the room.
He picked out a book he’d read before, one filled with short stories that were easy to enjoy for the tired mind, and settled down in a nearby chair after having lit a few candles to have a bit more light.
Never once did the boy’s eyes leave him, not during his choosing of the book nor when he turned the chair to face the bed, nor when he began to read the first story.
Keeping his voice at a low volume, Taehyung glanced over towards the bed every now and then to see if the boy was still listening, still awake. Every time he did a pair of glistening eyes was staring back at him, intently listening to his every word.
The sun was already beginning to rise by the time Taehyung finished the last story. “A new day has already begun.” He let the book fall shut, looking out the window. “It seems I overstayed my welcome. I didn’t mean for you to get no sleep at all.”
No verbal answer, and Taehyung already thought the boy to be asleep, when a hand wrapped around his own and turned it so that his palm was facing up.
He waited, wanting to see what the boy would do, when he raised his other hand to press his finger against Taehyung’s palm. Writing something.
Thank you.
Two such simple words, yet in that moment they held so much meaning.
“You’re welcome.”
The boy hesitated for a second, before moving his finger once more, writing something else.
Jeongguk.
Hesitant eyes met Taehyung’s, uncertain about having opened up about something so vulnerable. Weeks had passed, in which Seokjin and Jimin had tried to get closer to the boy. Fruitless efforts, for he had never uttered a word nor showed interest in sharing anything about himself.
But here he was. Offering Taehyung his name. Trusting him.
So Taehyung embraced it.
He smiled. “You’re welcome, Jeongguk.”
And for the first time Taehyung saw a glimpse of what Jeongguk’s eyes would look like if light would return to them. The way they brightened at the mention of his name, how the corners of his lips tilted up the slightest bit.
It was a sight to behold.
And Taehyung would treasure it.