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Summer is usually the worst for vampires, daylight stretching for most of the day and the sun shining hard enough that even the ones that are least affected by sunlight feel sick anyway.
Hwanwoong remembers Seoho telling him that the reason he was more resistant to the sun than anyone his age, was because he died at twilight, but he never really paid it too much mind.
It comes back to his mind now, as he’s in the studio, laying down on the couch where a patch of light is warming up his upper body. Anyone else of his family would have started sizzling half an hour ago, but he can barely feel an itch. There’s a knock on the door and he turns to smile at Mingi walking in.
“Hi, baby!”
Mingi closes the door behind himself, waving his hand. He’s still dressed in his hunter uniform, even though he came back from the mission over an hour ago. He and Hongjoong had stopped by to return some books they had borrowed, and Mingi decided to stay until dinner. He reaches up to scratch absentmindedly at his eyepatch. Seoho had handcrafted and enchanted it for him with a glamor that would hide his demon features without him actively needing to concentrate on it. They found out Mingi was very, very bad with magic, and teaching him a glamor spell was already a challenge.
Hwanwoong sits up and pats the space beside him.
“So… I saw Seoho hyung making out with Dongju in the library?” Mingi says, very fast and very quietly, like he’s whispering a secret he knows he shouldn’t share. He sits down, hands between his knees.
Hwanwoong tilts his head. “Wait, really?” he asks.
“Y-yeah?”
“Then we best steer clear from there for a while.” Hwanwoong cringes. “Come on, take off some layers. I really don't know how you’re not burning up in all that leather.” Mingi shrugs, taking off his jacket and his boots, then his eyepatch. His horns and tail swish back into existence and he lets out a sigh of relief.
Hwanwoong gets gently tackled back down, and Mingi lies on top of him. He’s warmer than the sun patch.
There’s a few minutes of quiet, only broken by background noise from the park outside and the music that’s coming from somewhere in the house. Then Mingi speaks again.
“I thought Seoho hyung was with Geonhak hyung?”
“He is.”
“But now Seoho hyung also likes Dongju?”
“Yeah. It was Geonhak the one who brought Dongju in.”
Mingi wiggles until he manages to sneak under Hwanwoong’s arms, wrapping himself around him and resting his head on his chest. Hwanwoong thanks his natural low temperature, or he’s sure he’d be boiling at this point. “So what’s up with hyung and Dongju? You don’t really seem shocked or surprised.”
“Well, it’s…” Hwanwoong hesitates, thinking about the easiest way to explain. “Seoho and Geonhak have been together for a long time. And I mean long, they-were-a-vampire-couple-back-in-Joseon long. They met other people, other vampires too, but all of them didn’t last - some because death came for them early, some because they were overtaken by greed and jealousy and tried to split them up. When they finally settled down here, they decided to not seek other people for a while. Keonhee came, then I did. But Geonhak found Dongju when he was still human and he was so very infatuated with him. When Dongju got sick, he asked Seoho to sire him, so that they could all be together. ”
Mingi listens closely, nodding along. “And Seoho was fine with that?"
Hwanwoong hums. “Yeah, they both had always been fine with the other taking lovers, but it had been centuries that either had wanted another person in their relationship.”
“And Geonhak hyung knows about the two of them, right?”
Hwanwoong smiles to reassure him. “Seoho wouldn’t try anything without everyone’s consent and approval, don’t worry. I think he’s having fun with Dongju because his courtship with Hongjoong has been failing. I think your captain either is obvious or has turned him down.”
Mingi blinks, pulls back, head tilted. “Oh. Oh, that makes so much sense now.” he says, laying back down. “Seonghwa hyung is kinda jealous of that I think, I was wondering why he was being weird around Hongjoong hyung lately. They’ve been dancing around each other for years, there’s even a bet on when they’ll finally have sex.”
Hwanwoong laughs, slowly petting Minigi’s hair. The room slowly gets cast in soft shade, as the sun outside starts to set. It’s all so very peaceful, and Hwanwoong startles a bit when Mingi speaks again because he was sure the cambion had fallen asleep.
“Were you ever with them, too?”
“Have I had sex with them? Yeah. Was I ever part of their relationship? No.” Hwanwoong replies. “Being with them helped distract me from the terror I felt about thinking of my new extremely long life. I always wanted to settle down with someone, rise a family. Suddenly, I felt like I never could, and the next best thing was wild vampire threesomes.” Hwanwoong wraps his arms around Mingi, pulling him up so that he could shift around until they were both comfortably laying down on the little couch facing each other. “Commitment, forever… they mean something much different when you’re very, very, hard to kill. Jealousy and labels and relationships… you start seeing them differently. It’s as if having all the possibilities in the world, leaves you really with none.”
Mingi nuzzles closer, nose settled into Hwanwoong’s neck, pushing at the choker that hides his turning scar. Ever since he’d turned, Mingi had said he felt like he was able to pick up scents that he had never encountered before, and he thought that, with some training, he eventually would be able to tell who had been in a room just by sniffing the air. Since then, he always liked to nap or sleep with his nose near Hwanwoong’s neck, usually just behind his ear, saying that the scent comforted him.
“And how do you feel about our relationship now?”
“If you’re worried I’m doing this just for fun or that I’m worrying about forever, I’m not.” Hwanwoong murmurs back, turning his head to leave a kiss on Mingi’s cheek. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before about someone.”
The hybrid smiles, making a cute trilling sound in the back of his throat, not unlike a cat, cuddling closer, tail now wrapped securely around one of Hwanwoong’s legs.
The studio is now mostly dark, and although Hwanwoong doesn’t feel the need to, a nap with Mingi sounds extremely nice now.
___ * * * ___
“Mingi saw you and Dongju about to have sex.” Hwanwoong says, walking into the kitchen, where Seoho was cooking dinner for those in the house who ate food, which meant Hwanwoong, Dongju, Mingi, and Hongjoong, who was coming over to drive Mingi back.
Seoho smiles, very proud of himself. “Hope we didn’t scare him too much, Dongju was really into it today.”
Hwanwoong makes a face, not really keen on hearing about his hyung sexual prowess at the moment. “No, thankfully he passed by while you were still making out.”
Seoho raises an eyebrow. “Are we ever just making out when Dongju is involved?”
“Nope, too much information. I don’t care.” Hwanwoong says putting one hand up as a sign to stop as he gathers all needed to set the table.
Seoho laughs. “Hey what does that mean, you’ve fuc-”
“I’ll get the door!” Mingi shouts from just outside the kitchen, as the doorbell rings loudly. Hongjoong walks into the dining room a minute later, Mingi in tow.
Hwanwoong peeks from around the corner. “Sit down! Food’s almost done and Dongju should be coming now.”
He turns back towards Seoho, this time barely whispering. “You know, speaking about your relationships: I think you should just tell Hongjoong hyung how things are, you know? He’s not stupid, he probably already knows who you’re fucking.”
Seoho almost drops the pan he was holding at that, glaring at him as he equally divides food into all the plates. “Dongju and Geonhak are none of his business.” He grabs another pan, where extra meat had been cooked for Mingi, and adds it to one of the plates. “I don’t understand why they would be, I’m not asking for his hand in marriage. Just some good, consensual, mutual fun.”
Hwanwoong grabs his and Mingi’s plate, bumping his hip against Seoho. “But maybe to do that you need to have some good, consensual, mutual conversation first.”
Seoho complains with a whine and a grunt, but silently follows.
Dinner passes by pleasantly, Hongjoong catching everyone up on how the hunter group is doing (very well, with a new group of recruits ready to be instructed) and what new missions they have done. Dongju chats about his twin after he’s asked by Mingi to, having mentioned him in passing, and it’s really the first time they actually are talking about the other vampire family.
“Wait, if he’s your twin, isn’t he family too?” Mingi asks around his bite, frowning.
Dongju sighs, long and suffering, mostly for the dramatics. “All vampires being turned by the same Sire are called a Family, but usually it only refers to the ones living with them. Seoho hyung is our Sire, and this is our Family.” he explains, leaning with his elbows on the table, cheeks squished between his hands. “Myeongie is my blood twin, but he was turned by Hyung’s brother - not, like, actual blood brother, they just have the same Sire - so his Family is with his Sire, Younghoon hyung.”
“My head hurts.” Mingi mumbles. He turns to pout when Hwanwoong laughs at that.
“Maybe, but for us it never is.” Hwanwoong says. “You usually leave your blood family behind anyway when you turn, it’s nice to know you have somewhere to belong. The struggles are exactly the same, don’t get me wrong.”
“Is that what you mean when you said you didn’t have a good relationship with your father? Were you talking about your Sire?” Hongjoong asks Seoho, who looks a bit startled, eyes darting between the hunter and Hwanwoong in clear panic.
For someone who’s supposed to have literal centuries of experience in human relationships, Seoho manages to always end up being extremely awkward at some point. And even if this time it’s partly Hwanwoong’s fault, having brought up the issue before dinner, it has to be said that Seoho has been dancing around Hongjoong for at least a good two years and it’s been the longest he’s ever pursued anyone outside the family.
“Are most vamp families friends between each other?” Mingi asks before the silence could become even more awkward, poking around his empty plate. Hwanwoong takes his own, since he hadn’t eaten much anyway, and switches it with Mingi, who gives him a little smile as thanks before going back to stuff his mouth.
Hwanwoong brushes his fingers through Mingi’s hair. “Not really. There’s plenty of them who take their new life as an excuse to do horrible, horrible things - and since we’re the ones on the same playing field, it’s our responsibility to stop them when we’re aware of it.”
“You fight other vampires!?” Mingi asks, eyes big.
Hwanwoong shrugs. “It happened a couple of times. Nothing like a real battle - that’s more the hyungs’ speciality. They had to fight a lot to make sure people around them were safe in the past.”
“A family feud it’s how Woongie hyung got turned.” Dongju supplies unprompted, making Hwanwoong kick him in the shins. He whines, leaning against Seoho's shoulder, who instinctively raises a hand to gently pat him, but stops when he sees Hongjoong eye the movement with a weird look.
“I’ll tell you later.” Hwanwoong says even before Mingi has time to ask. “Let’s finish dinner first.”
Later doesn’t really manage to come. Dinner stretches along with chatter and gossip, Keonhee, Seoho and Geonhak eventually joining as well. Hwanwoong can see how Hongjoong slowly gets more comfortable around them, how he seems to either contain his reactions when there’s affection being exchanged or just accept it, and he sends a little sign of good luck to Seoho as he’s leading the hunter along to their library, probably to borrow some books as he always does.
Hwanwoong helps Mingi gather what few things he had been leaving around the house for the past days and then into his coat. It’s been a few months since he’s turned, and although he now has good control of his new body, Hwnawoong likes taking care of him anyway.
“Next time I visit, will you tell me?” Mingi asks at the door, putting on his eyepatch and letting the glamor hide away his demon features. “About how you got turned.”
Hwanwoong nods. “I promise. Now go, don’t let your hyung wait.” he murmurs, rocking on his tiptoes to kiss Mingi’s cheek.
___ * * * ___
Hwanwoong thinks it’s not an interesting story, which is partly why he doesn't like telling it.
He had just found work at a little convenience store. The pay was a joke, but enough, and the schedule fit well while he was doing his best to finish his studies, and it was near his university so that he could also get there on foot if he managed, as he usually did, to miss the bus. The issue only lied in the fact that it took him quite a ways away from the flat he had been sharing with two other students, and as he had taken the closing shift, it also meant he was often walking around late at night. The fear of being alone in the dark was always present at first, as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, hood up, and hurried along to the bus stop in the hopes he could always catch the last ride, but usually it wasn’t the case.
He got used to the routine pretty quickly, fear leaving its place for habit and slowly fading completely, even from the back of his mind.
So, when one day he finished his shift early, just as the sun was starting to set, the last thing on his mind was his safety as he made his usual way towards the bus stop. He often took the main streets, but he had been doing some calculations in his mind and he realized that taking a couple shortcuts would let him catch an earlier bus and save him from fifteen minutes of tedious commute.
He takes a left, into a back alley. He scrunches his nose at the smell of cat piss and trash left for far too long under the summer sun, not really paying attention to his surroundings. He hears a thud, then a growl, and when he looks up there’s a woman, blood dripping from her mouth and into her pristine white blouse. Her hands are bloody too, and they’re holding a man’s head, his body broken and mauled laying at her feet.
He stops, in that moment his brain has trouble processing all the information it’s getting. Fear takes a second to settle in, push fast through his veins and muscles, making all the hair on the nape of his neck stand and color drain from his face.
“You’re one of them aren’t you?” she says, and her voice is monstrous, scratchy and growling, sounding like it’s coming from somewhere beyond death. “Their little fucking toy. I’ll eat you before they can.”
Hwanwoong would like to say his life flashed before his eyes, as she jumped and smashed his skull against the concrete, her teeth sinking into his throat and ripping it open. He’d like to say he thought he’d lived a good life, that he’d regret never asking out that one cute guy that’s in all his classes, but the truth is that one moment he was thinking about jogging to the bus stop and the next he was looking up at the stars starting to peek around the orange sky and all he could think about was how pretty they were.
There was a crash, somewhere behind him, a loud screech that sounded anything but human and then silence, filled in by the city white noises and cicadas crying somewhere far away. Then the silhouette of a man casting shadow over him, a gentle hand covering the ugly gash on his neck.
“I don’t wanna die.” Hwanwoong murmured, weak and tasting like copper.
The figure smiled down at him. “Then you won’t.”
___ * * * ___
They’re once again lazing around in the library, laying on top of the couch with the curtains drawn just enough to keep the room lit without any direct light coming in. Hwanwoong finishes his story with a shrug of his shoulders.
“What had happened?” Mingi asks, lips speaking directly against the skin of Hwanwoong’s neck, over the clean puncture wound scar on his neck, where Seoho's teeth had sunken in decades ago.
“The woman had been a feral newborn vampire. There’s no humanity in them, only hunger - it happens when a Sire turns someone and just leaves them on their own for too long.” Hwanwoong explains, nuzzling against Mingi to the best of his possibilities. He’s trapped under the bigger and heavier form of the cambion, lazily laying on top of him and purring loudly. “Everyone knew who had turned the woman, but since he was one of the oldest Sires in Korea no one was brave enough to speak up - except Seoho hyung. It was his Sire too.”
“Hyung was fighting off the feral vampires?” Mingi asks.
Hwanwoong nods. “And their Sire too. The city was actually part of hyung’s jurisdiction, but the Sire had been releasing feral newborns into it for months then.” he explains, sighing. “Eventually, Seoho hyung had enough.”
Mingi stills on top of him, the vibrations from his chest stopping at once. He pulled back to look at Hwanwoong. “Did he kill his Sire?”
“Yes. He’d gone mad long before. He didn’t mourn.” Hwanwoong replies.
Mingi’s tail swings once, twice in the air before he lies back down slowly, stretching his back and arms and nuzzling back into the crook of Hwanwoong’s neck. “What was it like, being turned?” Hwanwoong takes some time to recall his memories, blinking up at the ceiling. “Do you know the process for vampirizzation?” Hwanwoong asks, and, when he feels Mingi shake his head ,goes on to explain. “The Sire bites you, deep, and releases a toxin in your blood. It slowly changes your blood - I am not a scientist, but I’m sure hyung has books about it if you want to read up - and then the blood slowly changes the way your body works and heals. And then you get heightened senses, superhuman strenght, a fucked up diet and immortality.”
Mingi hums along, nose tracing along Hwanwoong’s jawline. He’s been fidgeting for a while now, not really lying completely still, his hands moving over whatever part of Hwanwoong they could reach. And of course his tail too, wrapping and unwrapping around Hwanwoong’s legs.
“What’s up, baby?” he asks, one hand coming to wrap around Mingi’s waist and lightly scratching at the base of his tail. The reaction is immediate, Mingi making a pleased sound at the back of his throat and pushing against the touch. “You’re so fidgety today… Do you want to go out? Do something else?”
“Nooo…” Mingi whines. “I don’t know, I’m just… ngh. Maybe I’m hungry.”
Hwanwoong had noticed it too, the way something seemed to keep a nervous energy under Mingi’s skin, making him bounce his leg, bite his nails, entering and exiting rooms. He was training both here at the villa and back at the hunter’s quarters and would usually end up quite exhausted one place or another, but these days instead he had looked for Hwanwoong and just… had been vibrating in his proximity.
Hwanwoong chuckles, turning to kiss his nose and reach up to scratch at the nape of Mingi’s neck, knowing it’ll get him to relax pretty quickly. Mingi seems to respond well, arching and purring as Hwanwoong keeps petting him and leaving small kisses on his face, across the bridge of his nose, his temples, even the ridges of his horns.
They stay like that for a while, before something clicks in Hwanwoong’s mind.
“Mingi… are you horny?”
There’s this beat of silence before the cambion scrambles away, sitting back on his heels with a frown on his brows. “No…?” he says, looking down at his crotch, then back up, cheeks red realizing what he’d just done. “I mean, I don’t… know?”
Hwanwoong sits up as well, trying his best not to laugh at the adorable confusion on Mingi’s face. “Baby, I hope you know it’s ok if you are.” he says. “I’d hate for you to feel embarrassed about telling me these kinds of things.”
Mingi shakes his head again, but something seems to have been clicking in his head. “I’m… going to find Soho hyung, okay?” he says, standing up and basically bolting out the room, leaving Hwanwoong alone and confused.
The door slams loudly, and Hwanwoong sighs deeply.
___ * * * ___
Three weeks later Hwanwoong is nervously tidying up his bedroom - which needs little to no tidying since he doesn't actually use it that much to begin with. Mingi had been avoiding him, claiming training and missions with his demon hunting squad as the reason they couldn’t see each other, but he could easily tell it was a lie.
He pats down for the hundredth time the decorative blanket he’d put on his bed, and then almost startles out of his skin as the door swings open and he’s met with Mingi, wobbly and flushed, stumbling through it and directly onto the bed.
“I give up. I tried my best to keep it at bay but nothing works and I feel like I’m going to lose my head soon.” Mingi says, crawling towards Hwanwoong. “Mingi, what in the loving fuck are you talking about?! Are you okay?”
“I’m so…” he takes a deep breath, and then tries so hard not to laugh “... so horny, hyung, if I don’t get fucked in the next minute I will literally eat my own kneecaps.”
Hwanwoong is torn between absolute shock, and total hilarity, and he makes an unattractive snorting sound as he’s stuck between a laugh and a gasp. “You can’t just say that!”
Mingi whines, reaching out towards him. “I tried everything, I swear - porn, toys and even a chastity belt, but I’m like a cat in heat and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Babe, with all due respect, but I told you countless times that you could’ve asked me anything when this was going to happen.” Hwanwoong tries to keep calm, keeps his heartbeat down and his thoughts quiet, because Mingi’s hands are hot and his skin is glinting with a sheen of sweat and he smells so good. “What made you so stubborn?”
“I didn't want our first time to be because I’m half sex demon.” Mingi confesses, shy with his tone, but bold with his body, as he pulls Hwanwoong closer, his hands slipping underneath his sweater to rest on his bare hips.
“I’ve been in a vampire orgy, my love.” Hwanwoong comments “I think I can handle my sex demon boyfriend.”
Mingi’s eyes are big and shiny as he looks up to the vampire, licking his lips. “Promise?”
Hwanwoong smirks. “Let’s see who tires first.”
___ * * * ___
Hwanwoong emerges two days later from his bedroom, scratched and bitten, wrapped only in his dressing gown, ignores the rest of his vampire family who hollers and whistles, drinks a whole water bottle in the span of a minute and goes back to the bedroom, where Mingi has been waiting naked and writhing on the bed, with as much energy as he had on day one.
Sex demon boyfriend wasn’t as easy to handle as a vampire orgy after all.
___ * * * ___
“You look… rejuvenated.”
Hwanwoong glares at Dongju, while Keonhee tries to stifle a cackle. They’re sitting in the living room, watching who knows which drama with a poor female lead and a company CEO male lead. Hwanwoong didn't really want to be there, but he also didn’t really have any energy to do something else instead.
He had spent the best part of a week having sex with his half demon boyfriend until there was really nothing more he could give him. Mingi had slept for a whole day once they were done, and awkwardly left the manor once he woke up.
Seoho had then taken Hwanwoong aside and had the weird version of the bees and the flowers talk, which involved biology notions of succubi and vampire ruts. “Ruts?!” Hwanwoong had stuttered, his brain struggling to fit more information than he really wanted to know. “Yeah, it can happen. You get into a daze and a frenzy at the same time, become a fuck machine.” Seoho answered, like he was reporting the weather forecast. “A lot of times it ends in bloody murder because you can’t tell hungry and horny apart anymore, so, like - be careful.” and before Hwanwoong could say anything to get himself out of the most embarrassing conversation he’s ever had in his entire unlife, he also added: “But you should be okay with Mingi, since he’s half succubus and he’s literally made to be, well, mounted like IKEA furniture for hours on end. I hope you guys have fun.”
Dongju snaps him out of his thoughts with another, tragically inappropriate question. “How often do you have to do the sex ritual to keep him from dying?”
“It’s not a sex ritual.” Hwanwoong groans. “And I don’t know. Whenever it happens.”
“Well, nex time can you two, like - get a room or something?” Dongju huffs, arms crossed and lips pouty. “Some of us aren't old enough to forgo sleep for days because someone else is having very loud back-to-back sex for days, you know.”
It takes all of Hwanwoong's self restraint not to strangle him right then and there.