Archive of Our Own ^beta

Fear.

an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.

One of the most primitive human emotions.

Without fear humankind wouldn’t have survived for so long, it wouldn’t have evolved to dominate the world as it does right now. Fear brought humans to where they are now. It took them by the hand and led the way. It protected them. And fear made them one of the most dangerous predators to walk among all living things.

Fearing for their lives, their safety, their survival — their place at the top of the food chain. Humans have learned to utilize their fears, to turn them into something dangerous. A weapon that would tear apart anything that threatens their existence.

Fear was it, that imprisoned Yoongi.

Cold. Dark.

The first thing Yoongi notices when he could pry his eyes open again. Even years, decades, centuries later, he could clearly remember the blurry shape of his surroundings, the stench that filled his nose and made him nauseous. He still feels the pain within him. The panic. His cold heart hammers in his chest and the silver handcuffs around his wrists burn through his skin.

He tries to move but can’t. Tries to yell but his throat burns as if someone poured acid down there. He can’t close his mouth. Rust. Metal. That’s what he could taste. A piece of metal stuck inside of his mouth to keep it open. As soon as he realizes this, his jaw twitches. As if it doesn’t believe that it's stuck.

Saliva pools on his tongue, drips from the corners of his mouth.

Pain floods through his body. Sharp, skin-crawling pain explodes in his jaw as he tries to bite through his restraints.

It’s fruitless.

Fear.

Such a human emotion.

But at this moment, Yoongi feels human again. He feels the fear deep within him, consuming him whole as the blurry figures around him start moving. Their hands are pressing him down into his restraints. Their fingers weave in his hair, keeping his head still as he could do nothing but scream his throat bloody when he sees the metal instrument they bring towards him.

His chest falls and rises rapidly. He doesn’t know whether it’s his cries of agony echoing from the stone walls or if it’s someone else.

Crack.

Thick blood fills Yoongi’s mouth. He chokes on it as it pours down his throat, and runs down his chin and neck.

It cracks a second time. Echoing back from the wet stone walls around them. And that’s when Yoongi dies.

The next time he’s conscious again he’s been dumped somewhere in the wilderness, still completely disoriented he tries to stand up. His vision spins and his stomach coils tight at the taste of his own blood in his mouth. It makes him recoil and a scream tears itself from his lips. He doesn’t mind the pain as it rips through his throat, through his chest.

It comes from deep within. Something that makes his bones rattle. A scream that carries his abused soul out into the world, wanting to rip everything around him apart. Take every human down with him.

Yoongi knows. He knows what the humans have done to him. Without even knowing it, they killed him. They took away what belonged to him, what guaranteed his survival.

Despite knowing already, his tongue swipes up towards his upper row of teeth. And as it finds two gaps where his fangs are supposed to be, Yoongi could do nothing but cry out in agony until he passes out again.

He would remember this fear in his heart throughout the next centuries. Even throughout the long decades of sleep as he hid from the world and everything within it — humans and vampires alike.

A few centuries later, in the modern age, an unsuspecting human makes his way home through the dark streets of Seoul.

Taehyung hates surgery-day. If he were more honest he would call it guaranteed-overtime-day because, without a doubt, he would have to stay behind in his clinic, watching as all his employees go home while he’s stuck finishing up.

No matter how well he plans all his surgeries, they always take longer than expected. Taehyung much more prefers the regular days filled with boring appointments of children with their first loose tooth, caries, or routine tooth cleaning. It’s much easier and he can always get home on time.

Seoul is already in full swing of its nightlife when Taehyung locks the door of his dental clinic behind him and steps out into the cold air of the night. His steps are heavy and slow as he makes his way down familiar streets. Most people still out at this time are already drunk out of their minds. Somehow, Taehyung wishes he was one of them as well but he wants to get to bed as soon as possible. There should still be beer in his fridge so he quickens his steps slightly.

The neon lights of the clubs and bars are flashing as he passes them quickly and Taehyung is nothing more than another shadow of the night among everyone else. Usually, he takes the bus home but at this time it starts coming irregularly and Taehyung doesn’t want to wait in the cold for too long.

And he was sitting down all day, a little bit of movement won’t harm him but will probably do the opposite.

On a whim, he turns at a dark corner and enters a maze of small alleyways which he knows lead home though he’d usually avoid using them at night. Nothing ever happened but they’re empty. Small. Dark. Taehyung quickly pulls out his phone to distract himself.

He swipes through his notifications until he ends up with a new’s push-up. The first word makes him almost stop dead in his tracks.

Vampires.

Taehyung’s eyes fly over the small headline.

Vampires? How far have they been pushed into the big cities?

Taehyung has never seen a vampire. But he knows they exist. Everyone knows they exist or at least, have existed in the past. Sometimes, in rural neighborhoods people report vampires. Attacks, deaths — it seems some of them have survived for such a long time, living among humans. Always hiding.

But in the big cities, it seems to be harder for them. Surveillance, tons of people, the nights not being quiet and lonely. Lights everywhere, even in the darkest, smallest alleys people could still pass through, could still catch them in the act of hunting. Surviving in the big cities seems to be much harder for the few vampires left. Especially if they’re alone. It’s just so much harder to stay undetected. Grabbing a random human off the street might be easier but the risk of getting caught is too great.

Still, in the last few years, people have claimed to have seen vampires in Seoul and other large cities as well. They live in their secret organizations, hidden from the human eye, smuggling blood to keep themselves alive.

Covens, Taehyung remembers the word he heard in passing once. They live in covens, concealing themselves, helping each other survive among humans. The only vampires that have been caught in the last two decades were rogue loners who had to resort to killing on their own, putting themselves at risk.

How far have vampires been pushed into the big cities?

Taehyung thinks they were always there. In his opinion, the headline should rather ask what suddenly motivated the vampires to kill so openly. They always hide so well, so why have they stopped? Have their numbers declined so much that they can’t rely on each other anymore? That they have to hunt on their own? Are they so driven by hunger that they throw all caution out of the window and attack the first human they come across?

Just as he wants to turn another corner he hears something strange. All that stuff about vampires is still at the forefront of his mind and he stops. His gut is telling him to just keep going, maybe a little quicker than before but Taehyung is already moving towards the noise. (He’s never been good at listening to his gut.)

The noise came from another dark street. He steps into the shadows and tries to see something in the blurry darkness. There’s one neon sign which hangs on by a thread, the light of it is so dim that it barely makes a difference as it flickers. Somehow, it gives the atmosphere around him an eerie vibe.

Taehyung could make out two people in the shadows a little further ahead. It seems as if they’ve just stumbled out of the back entrance of one of the buildings. One is pressing the other against the wall and — Oh. Taehyung stops. They’re making out. That’s — really none of his business.

He doesn’t want to be involved in whatever borderline exhibitionistic scene is taking place in this alley so he quickly takes a few steps back but as he walks backward, his foot gets caught on an empty can.

The sound seems to echo through the entirety of Seoul and Taehyung freezes. So do the two people in the alley.

The neon light flickers and for a moment, Taehyung could see the face of the person that seemed to be kissing the other person’s neck just seconds ago. Red. He sees — red.

Blood.

Blood smeared all over the man’s face. Wide, scared eyes are staring at him and neither of them moves. Thick, red blood runs down the man’s lips, it’s smeared all over his cheeks, and drips down his chin, soaking his clothes.

He takes a step back without breaking eye contact with Taehyung. The other man he had pressed against the wall falls to the ground with a dull thud. His limp body stays motionless on the ground and then, the other man, with blood dripping out of his mouth, turns around and runs. Almost immediately, his body gets swallowed up by the night and Taehyung could do nothing but stare into the darkness where the strange man vanished.

Vampire.

The word echoes in his head.

A vampire. Right in front of him. Somehow, Taehyung couldn’t wrap his mind around it. The picture of the man replays in his head over and over again. His wide eyes — strangely pretty as they caught the light of the night — and the expression on his face… so fearful. Taehyung wasn’t even scared, rather, he was surprised. Stunned? Perplexed? It wasn’t fear that rooted him to the ground. Not even as he saw the blood dripping from the man’s lips, saw the red liquid smeared all over his face and soaking his clothes.

He wasn’t scared. Somehow… he really wasn’t. As strange as it sounds.

When he could finally tear his eyes away from the spot where the man vanished his gaze falls on the limp body still laying in the middle of the alley. Its sight shocks him into action and Taehyung hurries over, turning the unconscious man on his back.

His neck is soaked with blood and his skin is sickly pale. But his chest falls and rises shallowly — he’s still alive. Alive. Taehyung quickly gets his phone to call an ambulance and the police to the scene. As he’s explaining his whereabouts to the worker on the other side of the phone, he wipes away the blood on the man’s neck. He’s trying to find the wound to stop the bleeding.

But as his fingers find it, he drops his hand in confusion.

On the news, they showed the wounds of the people who fell victim to vampires. They always looked the same. On the skin, the indents of an entire set of teeth were visible, and then, right where the canines were, two deep puncture wounds would gape wide open.

This looks different. At the side of the neck, there’s only one wound — one deep wound, much larger than a fang could rip into the neck of a human. It looks more as if he’s been stabbed with a screwdriver or something else.

What…

That… doesn’t make sense. It wasn’t a vampire? But Taehyung saw the man drink the blood, he saw it drip from his mouth. He was definitely drinking blood so… what the hell happened here?

Taehyung is still confused when the police and the ambulance arrive. Thankfully, he could leave after answering a few questions from the police. On his way home, he couldn’t stop thinking about the blood-smeared alleged vampire that vanished so quickly into the night.

Taehyung can’t stop thinking about the incident.

It replays in his mind over and over again. Always starting with the intense way the alleged vampire looked his way. The more Taehyung thinks about it, the more he can’t let go of the fact that the vampire was — pretty.

Somehow, it sounds stupid but Taehyung can’t stop imagining his face without the blood over and over again. He’s sure he’d recognize him again just based on his eyes. Those eyes have burned themselves into his memory.

For the next few days, Taehyung walks home from his clinic the exact same way he did during that night. Every single time he would walk past that alleyway where he locked eyes with the vampire. And every single time he doesn’t come across the strange man his hopes of seeing him again get smaller and smaller.

In the back of his mind, he knows that it would be unlikely for the vampire to return to the crime scene but he doesn’t know where else to look for him. Every time his small voice of reason pipes up he shuts it down immediately. Not only for calling him out on his obviously hopeless search but also for even wanting to find the vampire.

Why does he want to find him?

He hasn’t really asked himself that question yet. And he doesn’t want to either. Why does he want to find him again? Curiosity? Because of the strange course of events? Because he’s pretty? Taehyung doesn’t want to answer the question he avoids so avidly.

After two weeks of forgoing the bus and walking home, Taehyung has almost given up. Though his mind still wanders to the events of the fateful night from time to time, his reason has started to gain the upper hand. He will just have to come to terms with the fact that this strange vampire or human pretending to be a vampire, will be someone he’ll never see again.

When he lays awake at night, unable to fall asleep because he sees the face of the strange man in front of him over and over again, Taehyung feels a little stupid. Missing someone he doesn’t know. Wanting to meet someone who was in the process of potentially killing another human being. It’s stupid.

But still… he couldn’t stop himself.

Time passes but the memory remains in Taehyung’s mind though it has become something that doesn’t plague him every second of the day. He’s accepted defeat which is why it takes him a second to believe what he’s seeing right in front of him. It feels as if it could only be a trick of his mind.

The paper cup in his hand is burning. The heat of his beverage seeps into his body as he stands on a busy sidewalk in the heart of Seoul. Pedestrians pass by all around him, some cursing under their breath because he stopped so suddenly, eyes wide and focused on the bench just a few steps ahead.

It has become cold in Seoul. November is approaching fast and for the first time, Taehyung’s breath is fogging up in front of his face when he steps outside. This was just supposed to be a quick little walk on his day off but it turned into another fateful encounter.

He saw the figure of the man the second he stepped out of the small café. His clothes seemed a little thin for this type of weather and his steps seemed unsure between the crowd of fast-walking pedestrians. It’s as if he doesn’t really know where he wants to go. Dark hair spills out under a cap and something about him drew Taehyung’s attention from the moment he laid his eyes on him.

Still, Taehyung was just going to pass by him without wasting any thought on it when the man suddenly sat down on the bench. The bottom half of his face is covered with a mask but just like Taehyung thought before, he recognizes his eyes.

The same eyes from that night.

He doesn’t even think about it when he quickly crosses the distance between them and sits down on the bench next to the man. His heart is pounding in his throat and his hands tingle. There’s no plan on his mind, he doesn’t know what he even wants to do or say to the man. But he found him. And he’s not going to let him slip away.

As soon as Taehyung sat down the man scooted over to the very edge of the bench, putting as much distance as possible between them. Taehyung couldn’t help but stare, fully aware that it may come across as a little bit creepy.

For a few seconds, they sit in uncomfortable silence before the man turns his body partially towards him but doesn’t lift his head. Their eyes don’t meet, Taehyung could barely see them due to the long strands of dark hair concealing them.

“Uhm…” The man only glances at him from the corner of his eye for a second, “Can I — help you?”

He doesn’t recognize him.

Taehyung didn’t expect him to.

But he’s sure. He knows that this is the same person he saw in the alleyway.

“I’m Taehyung,” He introduces himself and offers the other — understandably confused — man his hand to shake, “What’s your name?”

There’s an awkward, long pause where the other only stares at Taehyung’s hand, never taking it. “...I don’t think that’s any of your concern.” His sentence sounds more like a question than a statement. It’s cute.

“Don’t you recognize me?” Taehyung asks with a bright smile. The other man unconsciously leans a little further away from him. His hands nervously fiddle with the hem of his long, dark green jacket.

“Should I?”

“We met two weeks ago. Not officially but I saw you in that alleyway,” Taehyung explains quickly, “You know, where you were drinking -”

His words get cut off when the man abruptly gets up from the bench. Immediately, Taehyung reaches out to grab his wrist. He still has many questions — he can’t let the man escape now, not after finally finding him. His fingers close around, cold, cold skin and he doesn’t feel a pulse beneath his fingertips.

A cold gust of wind blows past them as their eyes finally meet without the obstruction of hair in between. People pass by them, none of them paying any attention to the two men on the bench. None of them even has a clue of what’s going on between them. They’re right in front of them and still, no one could taste the tension between them.

“I’m not gonna rat you out to anyone — don’t worry about that.”

The hand in his grasp twitches. “I don’t know what you saw that night but it wasn’t me.” Panic. Taehyung caught the slightly panicked undertone in the other’s voice and it’s all he needs to know that he has the right person.

“No, I’m sure it was you.” He gets up as well, fingers still wrapped around the other’s cold wrist. “And I’m sure of what I saw… And I’m interested. I think I know what you are.”

The air between them sizzles with tension. A fire lights up behind those dark eyes and Taehyung’s grip involuntarily loosens. The man pulls his hand away harshly, a frown settles between his eyebrows as he glares at Taehyung. “If you’re so sure what I am then you’d better leave me alone or something might happen to you too.”

It’s an obvious threat. There’s really nothing else it could be. And it should scare Taehyung, should scare him away.

He waits for the iciness to spread through his chest. Waits for the drop of his stomach and the weakness in his knees but nothing happens. Taehyung knows he should be scared but he isn’t.

He isn’t.

“That’s the thing though,” He says, taking a step closer to the man who surprisingly still hasn’t run away from him, “I’m not sure what you are. Are you a vampire that just doesn’t bite? Or are you a human pretending to be a vampire and you can’t bite?”

The fire in the man’s eyes goes out in a second, instead, wide eyes stare back at Taehyung.

“I saw the wound you know,” He continues to press, “It wasn’t a bite mark but I know you were drinking the blood.”

“You don’t know anything,” The man whispers but he doesn’t sound too sure of himself.

“Yeah but I want to know,” Taehyung smiles.

“You —” A loud growl interrupts the small man and Taehyung couldn’t help the way his smile widens. Hungry. He must be hungry. He must be starving if his stomach is already growling this loudly. This is Taehyung’s chance.

“Are you hungry?” He asks excitedly, grabbing both of the other man’s hands, “You know my clinic is like ten minutes away from here. I can give you blood.”

Suspicion. Of course, Taehyung didn’t expect anything else. But the man doesn’t pull his hands out of his grasp this time. “Why would you want to do that?”

Taehyung shrugs. “Because —” He thinks for a second, “I don’t want you to get in trouble by getting blood some other way.”

Even though there’s obvious suspicion in the man’s eyes, Taehyung could see how his resolve is already breaking. He must be really hungry if the promise of blood is all it takes. Maybe he should be a little more worried about taking a strange vampire with him to some place where they’ll be alone but he isn’t. Not even a single thought in his mind is wasted on this.

One more push. One more push and the other would probably come with him.

“It’s not a trap. I swear it’s not,” He promises, trying to sound as trustworthy as possible, “You decide what to do but what will it be? Maul a human in broad daylight or starve until night and still risk getting caught? I’m offering you a much easier way.”

And that’s all it takes.

The vampire follows him, always walking a step behind as if he expects Taehyung to attack him at any moment. He doesn’t blame him. At least the other is coming along with him.

He doesn’t speak much during the ten minutes they walk through the cold air. Their steps are mostly the only sound accompanying them but Taehyung does find out his name.

“What kind of strange clinic is that?” Yoongi — Yoongi, what a pretty name — asks once they’re inside. His eyes are trailing all over the small room, especially focused on the large chair in the middle of it.

“It’s a dental clinic,” Taehyung explains as he opens a few drawers to get all the supplies he needs to draw his own blood. Since minor dental surgeries are happening in this clinic as well Taehyung is well versed in drawing the blood of his patients for lab tests beforehand, even though by now the nurses usually do the job for him.

“I’m a dentist.”

Yoongi curiously touches the drills at the side of the chair. “What’s that?”

Taehyung stops prepping for a moment and turns to glance over his shoulder at the other. For a second he wonders what Yoongi is referring to but he must be asking about him being a dentist. If he knew what that was he wouldn’t be asking about the drills.

For the first time, Taehyung wonders how long Yoongi has lived in Seoul or among humans. A dentist isn’t really something that only started to exist a decade ago. So… “How old are you?”

“...Old,” Yoongi sits down on the edge of the large chair, shifting around uncomfortably when his feet start to dangle barely above the ground. He’s a bit too short to sit comfortably. “I’m sorry, I don’t know much about this modern world. I’ve slept for a long time and then stayed away from society as much as possible.”

Taehyung hums. “Well, a dentist is a doctor — you know what a doctor is, right?” Yoongi rolls his eyes and nods. “A dentist specializes in teeth. Human teeth decay, they get holes, they need to be extracted, they need to be cleaned and fixed - that’s what I do. I care for teeth.”

Yoongi nods slowly.

The pungent scent of sanitizer slowly spreads through the room and Taehyung pulls on his gloves. He could feel Yoongi’s gaze on him but refrains from turning around. He could already imagine the way his piercing eyes look at him from right above the edge of the mask he still hasn’t pulled down from his nose.

As he pushes into the crook of his arm with his finger, searching for a vein, the reality of the situation finally settles in. He’s about to give his blood to a vampire. He’s alone with someone he’s sure is a vampire. Yoongi might be smaller than him, his frame seemingly thin and lithe under his large clothes but if he’s really a vampire — then he could very well attack him.

His heart starts to race in his chest. An urgent thump, thump, thump. For the first time since he’s learned how to do it, his fingers tremble slightly as he pushes the needle through his skin.

It rustles behind him.

The hairs at the back of Taehyung’s neck stand up and a shiver runs down his spine. Yoongi got up. He’s right behind him now.

Taehyung attaches the first plastic tube and focuses on the way his blood flows into it, splashing slightly in the tube. He fills it almost to the brim and then exchanges it for a second one. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.

He continues to draw his blood and fill various small plastic tubes under Yoongi’s watchful eyes.

His arm tingles and he reaches for a small cotton ball. With his thumb, he presses it on the small wound and then pulls the needle out with the rest of his hand. He continues pressing the cotton on the wound to catch the remaining blood.

Somehow, the air inside of the room has become as thick as the blood in the tubes.

Taehyung turns around in the chair, feeling the warmth of his own blood through the plastic of the tubes as he offers them to Yoongi.

The vampire hesitates. His eyes keep jumping from the tubes to Taehyung’s fingers that are still pressing the cotton pad down on the small puncture wound. A drop of blood has seeped through the pristine white cotton.

Taehyung gulps. “I know it’s not much but —”

“That’s not it,” Yoongi interrupts him. His head has dropped forward slightly again so his long hair is once more concealing his eyes. Taehyung doesn’t like that. “Thank you…” He whispers and takes the tubes carefully but only holds them, not doing anything else with them.

“What is it?”

For a long time, Yoongi doesn’t say anything. He’s only staring at the blood in his hands. He’s fidgeting — as if he’s nervous. His voice is unsure when he finally speaks again. “Uhm… the hunger… you know, vampires have a desire to bite. To hunt. It’s really hard right now to control it — smelling your blood and everything…”

Oh.

Oh.

Biting. Back to that. After all, the strange bite — if it even was one — is one of the reasons he wanted to find Yoongi. If it’s just biting…

Something churns deep within Taehyung’s stomach but he came so far already, he’s not going to back down now.

“You — can bite me,” Taehyung offers slowly, despite the uncomfortable feeling that spreads from the pit of his stomach to his chest. It wraps around his ribs and pulls tighter with each breath he takes. “As long as it’s just biting… You can bite me but don’t drink my blood. I’ve already drawn a lot. I’m not really keen on passing out right now.”

The same, strangely cute wide eyes of Yoongi look up at him again, glancing through his long hair.

“Are you sure?” Yoongi asks.

No.

No, he’s not.

A threat of danger hangs in the air. Taehyung could almost smell it. Somehow, he got himself in this situation and keeps making it more and more dangerous for himself. If Yoongi decides to simply drink his blood there’s nothing he would be able to do. He knows he could be offering up his life to the small vampire in front of him now. Yoongi could very well drain his entire body of blood if he wanted to.

So, no, he’s not sure about this.

“Of course, but not for long,” Taehyung laughs nervously but despite his sudden worries he tilts his head slightly to the side, exposing his neck to the vampire. “It’s now or never —”

A cold hand covers his eyes and then a surprisingly hot breath skims over the side of his neck. Taehyung barely seized up when he feels teeth sinking into his skin already. His heart is beating in his throat, blood rushing in his ears.

Taehyung expects the sharp pain of canines pushing deeper than the first layer of his skin, ripping through his flesh to suck the blood out of his body. But the pain never comes. That’s not all — he doesn’t feel any deep penetration to his neck. Nothing. It just feels like… a normal bite. It’s kind of as if someone is trying to very aggressively give him a hickey.

With regular, dull teeth Yoongi bites and sucks on his skin until he’s eventually satisfied and pulls away.

When Taehyung opens his eyes again he watches how Yoongi is sucking the blood out of the first plastic tube. His heart is still hammering uncomfortably fast in his chest but his nerves have calmed down a little.

“You can come to me if you need blood in the future,” Taehyung says absentmindedly, “It’ll be way less likely for you to be caught if you do.”

Yoongi doesn’t reply, too busy drinking the blood as fast as possible.

Absentmindedly Taehyung rubs over his neck. He’s still wondering — is Yoongi a vampire or is he not? He’s drinking the blood as if he was starving before but he didn’t bite him. Not really. The tips of his fingers carefully skim over the sore spot on his neck. He could feel the small, already vanishing indents of his dull teeth but there’s no wound, no broken skin at all.

And then his finger catches on something strange.

His heart skips a beat and he’s out of his chair quickly.

“Yoongi?” He calls out urgently and as soon as the alleged vampire turns his attention on him Taehyung is grabbing his jaw. Surprised, Yoongi doesn’t react immediately which gives Taehyung enough time to push his thumb into his mouth and pry his lips apart.

It’s only a second until Yoongi shakes him off.

But a second is enough for Taehyung to see the wide gaps in his upper row of teeth. On the left and the right, in the exact same spot.

Yoongi doesn’t have fangs. Yoongi doesn’t have teeth there at all.

“Your teeth are missing,” Taehyung gasps in surprise.

Immediately, Yoongi pulls his mask back on. He drops the tube and the remains of the blood inside splatter all over the ground. And then, just like that night in the alleyway, he’s running away.

Once again, Taehyung could only look after him.

Suddenly, every person looks like Yoongi.

Taehyung walks through the streets of Seoul, turning his head with a fast-paced heartbeat at every person wearing a hood or hiding their face with a mask. It’s even worse than before. Now that he could put a voice, a face, and a name to the vampire it’s even harder to not think about him.

It piqued his interest. Everything that happened so far. The small, adorable vampire with his missing teeth. Taehyung can’t get him out of his mind — he knows he’s being ridiculous but he couldn’t help it.

At night, he stands in front of his mirror before going to bed so he could trail his fingers over the fading bruise at the side of his neck. Somehow, he wishes Yoongi could have bitten him for real only so he would have a longer-lasting wound to remember the vampire by.

Another week passes by in which there is no sign of Yoongi and then, the cold November wind suddenly makes him turn up right in front of Taehyung’s apartment door. Just when he has given up hope of seeing him again.

For a moment, he thinks he only imagines the small, familiar figure standing in front of his door but when the man turns around, he recognizes those eyes immediately. They stare at him with something that Taehyung couldn’t explain. But it makes his stomach pull taut.

Quickly, Taehyung unlocks his door and steps into the narrow hallway. Sweat is already building on his skin as the heat of his apartment replaces the cold November air from outside. There are a lot of words stuck in his throat, a lot he wants to ask — right at the tip of his tongue the question of how Yoongi found his apartment but he keeps his mouth shut. Part of him is afraid Yoongi would run away again if he made one wrong move or said one wrong word.

His fingers tingle as he unzips his jacket, hearing the door fall shut behind Yoongi.

“You should have come to the clinic,” Taehyung couldn’t help but open his mouth. In his head, he’s already thinking about how he should give Yoongi blood without giving away too much. “It’ll be hard to draw blood —”

Cold hands settle on his shoulders as he gets pulled back. His heart drops to his stomach just as he feels gravity pull at his body and a sharp, deep pain suddenly explodes at the side of his neck. In the blink of an eye, he feels the telltale trickle of warm blood running down to the collar of his shirt. Lips cover the wound, sucking out the hot blood.

They’ve gone down to the ground now, Taehyung leaning against Yoongi who’s drinking as if he was starving. Somehow, he couldn’t move. His entire body has started to tingle and he feels himself becoming slightly cold.

The edges of his vision blur.

The blanket around his shoulders is scratchy but Yoongi doesn’t dare complain. Instead, he only draws it tighter around himself, hiding even more in the corner of the couch as he watches Taehyung slowly eat away at a cookie.

With his free hand, the human is pressing a tissue down on the wound of his neck and by now, the bleeding has mostly subsided. Yoongi’s chest is twisting and turning with guilt. In the end, he returned to the only human, the only person who’s ever been kind to him even after finding out that his teeth are missing and that he was a vampire. One of the only moments of kindness he’s ever known — and he went and attacked him anyway.

Succumbed to the lowest of his instincts and only thought about his own survival.

It’s been so long since Yoongi felt like this. When Taehyung fainted against him and he was able to finally pull himself away from the sweetness of his blood his body flooded with fear. One of the most human emotions, Yoongi would say. Fear. He hasn’t felt fear in quite some time.

Not when Taehyung caught him in the alleyway and not when the human recognized him again and approached him on the street. He was worried then but not afraid — it wasn’t fear that made his body seize up uncomfortably in these situations.

But it was fear that almost paralyzed him just moments ago. When he saw the pale skin of the person who’s helped him even though he should have been deathly afraid of him. Horrified even. But Taehyung wasn’t. He helped him. He never looked scared. And Yoongi feared — he feared he had destroyed this small ray of light in his otherwise dark world.

Just because he was too hungry, too selfish as he took advantage of the human’s kind offer.

It’s been centuries since he felt this thrum of fear — this glimpse of human emotion flash through him.

Subconsciously, his tongue runs along the back of his teeth, catching in the small gaps scared humans left behind so many, many years ago.

As he glances up from below the blanket his eyes meet Taehyung’s.

“Sorry,” The word tumbles off his lips clumsily and he immediately drops his head again. Mind racing with a thousand thoughts, images of Taehyung’s horrified expression bleeding into his grimaces of fear and disgust. Yoongi wishes he could turn back time and undo his mistake. Everything to not see fear-stricken eyes directed at him. Not again. He couldn’t take it.

“I’m sorry — I was so hungry. I couldn’t wait. I’m sorry,” He babbles, the words spilling over his lips like water over the edge of a sink.

When no reply comes immediately, Yoongi carefully glances up again.

There’s no fear, no horror on Taehyung’s face as he returns his gaze just like he’s done before as well. Just like he stared at him in the alleyway — not a trace of fear anywhere.

His smile may be weak but it still warms Yoongi’s usually cold chest. “It’s okay,” Taehyung reassures him gently.

The color has returned to his face by now and he doesn’t seem so sluggish anymore. Under the spell of Taehyung’s soft words, Yoongi carefully dares to move closer to him on the couch and assists him in treating the wound on his neck.

Despite the relatively shallow depth, it bled quite a lot. Yoongi is wiping away the dried blood around it when Taehyung asks, “What did you use to create the wound?”

Yoongi doesn’t answer. Wordlessly, he puts a bandage on Taehyung’s neck before he reaches into his pockets. His cool fingers close around a small object but he hesitates before eventually pulling it out and displaying it in the palm of his hand.

Curiously, Taehyung takes the small item from him. “Is that — a hairpin?”

A quiet nod.

It’s an old pin. To be honest, Yoongi has forgotten when he picked it up but it’s the only thing from his past that he’s holding on to. There used to be a gem embedded at the top but it was lost many, many years ago.

Taehyung holds it carefully — as if the old hairpin is something of extreme worth. Something worthy of being treated with the utmost care. As if he was holding a fragile piece of thin ice he runs his finger along the pin, the tip of his finger lingering in the small hole where the pretty gem used to be.

Yoongi scoots back a little, putting some distance between Taehyung and him again. Though, it’s smaller than before.

His body feels weird. The fear within his chest has simmered down after Taehyung’s gentle smile but there’s something else filling the hole it left behind. It’s just as confusing. Something Yoongi doesn’t remember ever feeling — or maybe he did, a long time ago when his heart was still beating and his body still human.

He glances at Taehyung and the feelings in his chest rise like a storm.

“I’m sorry for hurting you,” Yoongi apologizes again in a mumble.

“It’s okay.” The same gentle smile is once more directed at him and suddenly, Yoongi’s chest is in turmoil. He doesn’t know whether it’s a good or a bad feeling — somehow a blend of the two. “You know…” Taehyung starts but then trails off into silence when Yoongi immediately looks up to meet his eyes.

Their gazes are locked and Yoongi fidgets nervously. His fingers play with the fraying ends of his sleeves and he’s wiggling his toes in the shoes that are a size too big for him. Taehyung wouldn’t be able to see but his tongue is once again tracing the gaps in his row of teeth.

Just when it gets too much and Yoongi is a breath away from dropping his gaze, Taehyung’s soft, almost velvet voice dances through the air between them. For a moment, Yoongi only basks in the sound of his voice until the meaning of his words registers in his mind.

“Do you trust me now?” Is what he asks and it’s as if something is caving in his chest, breaking through his ribs with an icy grip.

He gulps. His fingers still.

Trust?

Yoongi only remembers wishing to be able to trust someone.

He remembers having his trust betrayed. Especially by humans. But Taehyung isn’t scared of him. Taehyung tried to find him before without any ill intentions. Taehyung has brought him to a place where it was just the two of them, very aware of the fact that he could have risked his life with that. But he wasn’t scared. He did it anyway. He gave him blood. He let him into his home. And all he did since Yoongi attacked him was reassure him that he was fine, that it was alright.

Trust is something precious. Something you can’t just gift anyone.

But Taehyung… maybe… Yoongi bites down on the inside of his cheek. Maybe trusting Taehyung wouldn’t be a bad decision at all.

His voice is nothing more than a weak whisper as he says, “… I guess I do.”

But the bright, slightly boxy smile Taehyung gives him makes the small bit of doubt in the bottom of his stomach disappear into thin air. Warmth bleeds into his skin as Taehyung carefully lays his hand on top of Yoongi’s.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Taehyung laughs nervously. Somehow, he almost sounds embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to scare or embarrass you back at the clinic. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve lost your teeth or not, you know? It doesn’t make you less of a vampire or — weird.”

And suddenly, Yoongi’s whole world comes to a stop.

His teeth have always mattered, they have always defined him.

His teeth were what made the humans so afraid of him, that made them fear him enough to want to destroy him and everyone like him. His teeth were the thing they took from him first. Because they encapsulated everything they feared about him. And even after they were gone, his teeth still defined him.

The gaps in his set of teeth were like a dark mark. He wasn’t human but he wasn’t a vampire anymore either. At least not a real one. That’s what the fellow vampires around him thought. They treated him as if he was sick. He was an outcast. Marked to walk alone among humans and among his own kind as well.

Because his teeth were taken from him.

It made him less of a vampire.

“Ah…” Yoongi’s eyes burn and his words come out wrapped in a thick layer of centuries-old bundled-up emotions he had long forgotten how to discern. “I don’t think other vampires would agree with you…”

The silence that follows his words is uncomfortable. Suddenly, the air in the small apartment has become thick, it lays heavy on Yoongi’s tongue and he wishes Taehyung wouldn’t have brought up his teeth.

The warm hand of the human closes tighter around his fingers before he pulls them into his lap. Yoongi concentrates on the way his pale skin is such a stark contrast to Taehyung’s warm one. With his free hand, the human gently plays with Yoongi’s fingers and he tries to keep them as limp as possible, letting Taehyung do whatever he wants to do.

“Why don’t you stay here?” Taehyung asks eventually. He’s not looking up at Yoongi but his now slightly sweaty hands hold tighter onto him — as if he’s afraid Yoongi would run away again. “You could be a vampire with me. I’ll give you blood, you can bite me — I don’t mind. Where have you been staying until now?”

“The streets and those uh — twenty-four hours internet cafés,” Yoongi admits quietly. Life in the big, modern cities has been — difficult.

Taehyung hums. “Where did you get the money for that?”

The slight guilt must have shown on Yoongi’s face because Taehyung immediately waves his hands around as if to erase his words. “Okay, forget that question,” He chuckles, “But I’m serious. You could just stay here.”

The ‘could’ sounds a lot like ‘should’. And the ‘should’ might even be an ‘I want you to stay’. At least that’s what Yoongi kind of hopes to see in the human’s eyes as Taehyung looks at him almost pleadingly.

“Why?” He still asks — this sprinkle of mistrust, of doubt still alive somewhere within him. “You don’t even know me.”

“Do I have to know you?” Taehyung asks, “We would get to know each other. That’s like — the whole point.”

Their knees bump against each other as Taehyung scoots closer to him on the couch. He’s grasping both of Yoongi’s hands now and the warmth that enters his body is something the vampire didn’t know he missed like that for the past centuries. It doesn’t compare to any other human touch he received before.

And it’s again Taehyung’s velvet voice that wakes the storm inside of his chest.

“You’re pretty.” Yoongi’s chest explodes and he couldn’t hold back the small gasp tumbling from his lips. Taehyung doesn’t stop talking there, “I think I might already like you — without having to get to know you.”

“But I’m not even human. You shouldn’t —” His words get cut off by a short, warm pressure against his lips. Before his mind has caught up to the fact that Taehyung just pecked his lips, the human has already pulled away again.

Yoongi could only sit there and stare. His mind is blank. All he could think about is the way he misses the warmth that slowly fades from his lips.

Gently, Taehyung pushes a strand of hair behind Yoongi’s ear. This small action alone makes Yoongi’s chest tingle.

“You okay?” Taehyung asks quietly, a smile on his soft lips.

Yoongi’s cold heart is racing against his ribs, trying to break out of his chest and jump towards Taehyung’s warmth.

Oh. Oh.

Yoongi leans forward, stealing his kiss back from Taehyung and it destroys every little bit of doubt he had before.

It doesn’t matter anymore.

It’s easy to settle in with Taehyung.

It’s also comfortable and convenient. Above all, it’s especially warm. Everything about Taehyung is warm, everything that belongs to him is warm. His apartment, the clothes he wears, the sheets of his bed even hours after he’s left for work. Yoongi never knew how much he missed warmth until now.

And the warmest thing of them all is Taehyung’s touch. His hands that are so gentle, caressing Yoongi’s body, his soft lips against Yoongi’s, the breath at the top of his head when they cuddle during the night. It’s all so, so warm. And Yoongi never wants to leave, never wants to miss this again.

Far too quickly, Yoongi has grown close to the human. Taehyung. Taehyung. Taehyung is everything that fills his chest. And after Yoongi has stayed with him for a while he eventually opens up about his past. The human has never asked but Yoongi felt as if he could tell him.

So, he does.

He tells him about how he has forgotten his human life by now. Tells him about the fear he felt when the humans started to hunt down the few vampires that were around centuries ago. Taehyung cries when Yoongi recalls the horrors of the night when the hunters took his teeth, broke and pulled them out of his jaw. And over and over again, Yoongi tells him how thankful he is for everything.

For the love he gives him. For the warmth Taehyung gives him. For letting him pretend — pretend to be a vampire like every other. For letting Yoongi bite him, for giving him his blood without even batting an eye.

And every time Yoongi says these words, a small seedling in the depth of Taehyung’s chest grows stronger and stronger. It took root when Yoongi talked about the trauma connected to his missing teeth for the first time. A small root of guilt.

Taehyung hadn’t even noticed it as it settled inside of him, nestled somewhere between his ribs and his sternum — right above his heart.

But the seedling grows. Every time Yoongi thanks him it grows. Until its roots are woven between all twenty-four of his ribs and a poisonous flower has bloomed around his heart. The thorns of the plant dig into his lungs with every breath he takes. Guilt.

Some part of Taehyung is sure that Yoongi only stays here, only goes along with everything that he does because Taehyung gives him what no one ever did. He made him feel like a real vampire again. Even without his teeth. A small, irrational part of Taehyung is scared that Yoongi’s lack of teeth might be the only thing keeping him by his side.

Even if that might sound ridiculous — that thought managed to overshadow everything else.

So, he keeps the small project he started the moment after Yoongi first disappeared from his clinic a secret.

It sits in a small, velvet box. Safely kept in the pocket of his jacket and with each passing day, the small box seems to weigh heavier and heavier. It drags him down with every step he takes.

The guilt almost crushes him but he keeps silent. Too afraid of what might happen. Until he couldn’t anymore. Until one day, he watches Yoongi unconsciously swipe his tongue between the gaps of his teeth and he breaks.

His chest is so tight that he couldn’t breathe. The roots of the plant almost crush his ribs and its thorns rip through his clenched heart.

He needs to tell him.

Right now.

“I've been thinking…” Taehyung settles next to Yoongi on the couch. He gulps. The words feel like poison as he forces them out of his throat. “About your teeth. Or your lack of…” A cold, cold hand settles around his throat. “And — honestly, I thought about it after the first time we met but I didn’t tell you.”

He knows Yoongi is looking at him, probably with his eyes wide in confusion and his lips slightly parted. Taehyung can’t return his gaze.

“I’m sorry I was super selfish,” Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut, hiding from his next words as if that would lessen their impact.

“I can fix your teeth.”

Silence.

Nothing but silence.

Taehyung tries to count his erratic heartbeat to keep himself calm but fails. When he dares to glance at Yoongi he finds him staring at the floor, his dark hair covers his eyes, hanging in front of his face. It reminds him of the first time they talked and his stomach sinks.

Suddenly, they’re back on the park bench and Yoongi is full of suspicion and distrust, refusing to look at him. Suddenly, they’re nothing more than strangers again and Yoongi looks as if he would run away from him any second.

His throat tightens and he waits with bated breath for Yoongi to just say something.

“What… What do you mean?” His small voice tears at Taehyung’s heart. “You can — fix them?”

“Yes,” Taehyung gulps. His sweaty hands tug at the bottom of his sweater. “Human teeth need to be replaced all the time. I make implants all the time. I can — give you your teeth back.”

Oh, Taehyung doesn’t know whether he wants to take back everything he said or never have kept this secret at all. He knows he should have told Yoongi about the teeth the moment he heard about his back story.

But he didn’t.

“I didn’t tell you because I thought you wouldn’t need to stay with me if you had your teeth back.” It takes everything in him to admit to his own selfish reasons. It feels as if he couldn’t apologize enough times. “I’m sorry. If you want to, I can do it and you can leave then. You can leave with your teeth if you want to. I won’t try to stop you.”

The tension in the air weighs heavy on Taehyung’s shoulders. When Yoongi speaks up again Taehyung almost covers his ears, afraid of the words that might come out of his mouth.

“Since I’ve stayed with you,” Yoongi says calmly, “I stopped feeling ashamed of my teeth.”

“I’m really sorry —”

Yoongi raises his hand to cut him off.

“How will you fix my teeth?”

Instead of answering right away, Taehyung gets up to retrieve the small, velvet box from his jacket. Still, he couldn’t meet Yoongi’s eyes. His heart is heavy with guilt as he opens the box and shows the custom implants he made for Yoongi. Sharp, long fangs ready to be screwed into his bone.

Yoongi’s finger trembles as he carefully reaches out toward the implants. Gently, afraid to break them, he lets just the tip of his finger glide along one of the fangs.

“I would screw these into your jawbone,” Taehyung explains, “And they would be permanently in there. You could use them just like your regular teeth.”

Yoongi’s bottom lip trembles and he sits back, retracting his hands.

“You’re really really stupid,” He suddenly exclaims. His voice is a mixture of laughter and what sounds like him being on the edge of crying.

Taehyung’s heart is beating in his throat. He doesn’t know what to do as he watches Yoongi laugh with wobbling lips and tears glistening in his eyes. But somehow, the pressure on his chest has lightened considerably.

“Do you think so little of my feelings?” Yoongi sighs exasperatedly once he’s calmed down again.

Oh.

His own vision blurs and he squeezes Yoongi’s hands tightly as the other reaches out toward him. The tightness in his chest feels different from before. The knot is pulled taut to its limit and ready to burst any second now.

“I would never leave. With or without teeth — I don’t think I could live without you anymore.”

Those are the last words Taehyung’s guilt-ridden brain had expected to come out of Yoongi’s mouth. But he’s ecstatic to hear them. Relief floods his body and he couldn’t help but pull Yoongi tightly against his chest, holding him close as if he would suddenly disappear — as if his words were just a lie.

They’re not.

Of course, they’re not.

Because Yoongi doesn’t lie to him. Because he loves him.

Slowly, the plant that had filled out his chest for weeks is starting to rot away. And its roots finally die off completely when Yoongi smiles for the first time after Taehyung put in his teeth. The tears he cried then, filled with what Taehyung could only imagine are centuries of pain and despair, rolled down the vampire's cheeks and freed him of his haunting past.

Taehyung knows that the seedling of guilt would probably stay in his chest forever but as long as Yoongi stays as happy as he is right now, he would not let it start to grow again. And Yoongi wouldn’t let it either.

Taehyung has gotten more than used to the short, sharp pain of fangs piercing through his skin. The familiar trickle of blood that always runs down towards his collarbone gets licked up by a cold tongue.

Taehyung shivers at the sensation and then hisses when Yoongi’s lips close over the wound and he starts to suck. Now, that’s a strange sensation he might never really get used to. It does feel weird to have his blood sucked out of him just like that.

“Be honest,” Taehyung teases with a small smirk on his lips while his hand aimlessly runs through Yoongi’s soft locks, “This is the only reason you wanted your teeth back, right?”

Both of them know how much Yoongi enjoys biting Taehyung. Often, he does it only because he likes it. He doesn’t draw too much blood, doesn’t bite him to drink — only for pleasure. Even right now, several spots all across his body are aching from the bitemarks Yoongi has left behind. The small wounds and bruises wouldn’t fade for a good week or two — not that Taehyung really minds them.

He’d never tell Yoongi, though he’s sure the other knows about it anyway, but he likes the marks. Likes feeling as if he belongs to the vampire. It fills his chest with a strange sense of pride.

Yoongi pulls away from his neck for a second and from the corners of his eyes, Taehyung sees his tongue swipe out to collect the bright red blood clinging to his bottom lip. A low heat starts to curl tight in the very pit of his stomach. He wants to kiss him, wants to taste his own blood on Yoongi’s lips and his tongue.

“Can’t say that I don’t enjoy this,” Yoongi shrugs before diving right back in to latch onto Taehyung’s neck.

Taehyung just laughs, closing his eyes as he concentrates on the strange mix of pain and pleasure.