Work Text:
Desire.
From a young age, Vein always had this burning desire of want. Every time Vein had seen something he wanted, it was difficult to keep him from acquiring it in one way or another— no matter what it was, Vein was able to obtain them all, and as he grew older, the methods he utilized to obtain said objects of his desire… well, it only ever spiraled downhill afterwards, becoming a regular at the local mahjong table, gambling ever greater sums and never loosing a single important game.
So when Vein turned 15 and completely lost his sense of taste… well, lets just say he wasn’t surprised, with the habits he’d built.
However, as a fork, each cake he met felt bland. The tantalizing sweetness that caused so many forks to kill and cannibalize cakes until there was nothing left simply wasn’t appetizing to Vein. Certainly, they had some taste to them— it’s just most of them had the artificial sweetness flavoring Vein had despised in his food whilst he still had the ability to taste.
Every cake he tried to sink his metaphorical (and literal) fork and knife into was nothing but a surface level character. The behavior other forks had… simply confused Vein. There was nothing interesting about delicious about prey who fell to their knees at the mere sight of a knife used for malice, no fun in a hunt that ended in a single shot.
The feeling of adrenaline far surpassed the “delicacy” of human flesh; in his tetrachromatic world, Vein loved the vibrant crimson color of red the most. The sight of blood dripping out of a wound, of a pounding heart— Vein couldn’t help but adore the color of romance, destruction and luck.
It was a shame that Vein could no longer taste the delicacies he’d once adored; now, the only thing he could enjoy about regular food was the textures that swirled within his mouth. In addition to the newfound appreciation for the texture of frozen tofu, Vein had noticed a few things about his life as a fork after establishing his modeling agency:
Forks, even if they didn’t reveal their identity, tended to intimidate people, normals and cakes alike. People all instinctively just avoided them, as a prey would to their predator: Vein was kept at an arms length no matter how long the friendship lasted, no matter how carefully crafted the bond.
It made sense. The innate instinct to flee, especially when there were… quite a bit of rumors behind the scenes, whispers talking about people going poof.
Cakes themselves seemed to be attractive to the general public, even outside of forks. Their allure, their sweetness… it still piqued the desires and obsession of those not genetically predisposed to their flesh. Vein would know; the statistics for his models didn’t lie.
The models who were cakes drew more attention and, thus, more sales. It was a part of Vein’s business strategy to hire as many cakes as he could possibly find; a difficult feat, considering the small percentage of the population who weren’t a normal.
And somehow, he’d ended up interested in a particular new model.
When Vein had first seen Xia Fei in person— or Felix, if you preferred to use his English name— he was quite literally drowning in a pool. The bastards who were at the set had taken advantage of the way the crew had been distracted, holding the blonde and black haired novice’s head underwater, almost to the point of causing him to pass out from asphyxiation.
The first thing that caught Vein realized about this model in particular was their taste. A particular flavor— caramel? Vein wondered as he beat up the perpetrators of the near-crime. From the little Vein could glean without biting into his flesh and pulling apart skin, he knew that the flavoring of this cake in particular was not overly sweet; in fact, it was more the aftertaste of salt.
It was a fascinating flavor.
Vein’s interest piqued even further when instead of looking at him with fear, Xia Fei watched him remove his leather dress shoe from the limp, bruised bodies of the ones who tried to kill him with a near reverence, his eyes filled with wonder and seemingly ignoring every warning sign his cake instincts had to avoid forks.
There was something charming, Vein realized, growing a bond with the naive cake. Xia Fei’s emotions were always clear on his face, from his joy to his disgust, and each expression just fueled Vein’s hunger. Something about how he could easily express his emotions, the way he could get along with people—even random strangers— all of Xia Fei’s traits had captivated Vein. Soon the lines of curiosity began to blur with obsession, only to be tinged with a hint of jealousy, buried deep within his chest.
Xia Fei was gorgeous. And for the first time in a long time, Vein desired.
His companionship, his time… his affection.
His kindness. His friendliness.
His blood. His skin, his flesh, his viscera.
For the first time in his life, Vein understood why other forks went insane for cakes. Xia Fei was so painfully naive that he didn’t care about the danger Vein posed to him; a sheep presenting itself to a predator, ready to dive in for the kill.
Vein couldn’t help but want to take a bite.
The taste of salt on his lips exploded as Vein gently kissed the back of Xia Fei’s hand, the younger man staring down at Vein in awe, his entire face flushed red from embarrassment and fluster as Vein licked his lips, savoring the slightly sweet salty flavor that exploded in his mouth.
“Hey… lǎobǎn…” Xia Fei said, voice shaking with his fluster, self conscious despite being the only two present in Vein’s office. “What are you—”
“Delicious,” Vein interrupted, running his teeth over his sharp canines as his red eyes zoned in to stare at Xia Fei, whose back was pressed against the front of his desk, devouring the debauched expression on his face, despite barely doing anything to him. “…May I continue?” he asked, leaning in to cage Xia Fei within his arms, propping them at the shorter man’s side, trying not to swoop in and just eat him whole already, Vein’s head resting upon the latter’s shoulder, enveloping himself with and savoring the scent of intoxicating caramel.
“Y-yeah,” Xia Fei replied, his usual confidence and suave talking skills suddenly disappearing under Vein’s heated gaze, moving the hand Vein hadn’t claimed yet to cover his mouth, trying to save some face as he avoided Vein’s all-consuming gaze.
A grin spread on Vein’s face as he dragged the collar of the black turtleneck Xia Fei was wearing down, revealing the latter’s collarbone and taking his tongue, lapping a long string up Xia Fei’s neck up to his jugular, relishing in the sound of the sharp intake Xia Fei took at the foreign sensation as Vein’s canines lightly grazed his Adam’s apple. All it took was a single bite to stop Xia Fei’s heartbeat, and yet the blonde man didn't flinch.
Biting into the juncture between his neck and shoulder, Xia Fei hissed in pain as warm blood began spilling out of the wound, pooling Vein’s mouth with the savory, nutty taste of caramel. Bites, blooming like spider lilies, soon lined Xia Fei’s neck and shoulders, each licked clean of blood by Vein, whose lips were coated with the vivid red of Xia Fei’s crimson ichor. It was too much, to little, too fast, too slow— all at the same time and it drove him insane. It was over too soon, the overwhelming sensations suddenly withdrawing as Vein grinned, capturing Xia Fei’s lips with his own, bloody ones, the sting of iron translating for the latter being to the delicacy of ambrosia of the former.
It seemed like Xia Fei would need to be careful with the modeling events he took for the next weeks, and tread carefully to avoid being consumed whole by Vein.