Yeosang gradually inches closer to the other man - eyes staring blindly at something that he is not sure what is. His head feels foggy as he has trouble detecting how it unties the knots he has kept tightly wrapped until now. His skin is damp, still dripping with rolling water drops that drag his body with them down to the ground. Jongho is holding him, an arm wrapped securely around his waist as his body is gently wiped with any fabric that Jongho must have at hand. Everything tingles.

A startle runs along Yeosang's spine when the featherness of a touch is planted on his shoulder. Jongho kisses his skin lightly, soft lips caressing and treasuring him even in this situation. The boy closes his eyes leisurely while his tongue unknowingly slides across chapped lips and everything about Jongho envelopes him into a warm well-known caress. Hands running down over his slack arms, following his lines down until he cannot feel them anymore. Something soft is around him again, but he does not open his eyes to see.

"Come here Yeosang, you need to rest for a while," the knight gently moves his body forward until his legs are bringing him a little further away from the water. He barely finds himself shivering anymore when the wind curls itself around his exhausted corpse, but he is sure that if Jongho had not been there to hold him, he would have suffered even more.

His eyes flutter open with a stinging soreness, while the back of his head spreads in the dewy grass, and he looks up at the serenity of the moon's glowing. His lover is threading his fingers through his remnants of sooted hair, and Yeosang feels it as an attempt to soothe his own aching heart. The longer he stares, the longer he listens and feels. He believes it only has the opposite effect. Jongho's cold tears drip down and hit his hollow cheeks.

"It will be better.. I will make it better for you. Please keep this as my promise to you."

Jongho's tears are precious, graceful even and the scent lingering around him is even more enchanting as if it invites him closer. Yeosang does not even bother hiding them when the burning sensation of his eyes craves attention.

"I will give you my life, yes.. You can have everything there is left of me. Please.." Jongho presses and Yeosang knows he has seen the red irises by now.

But the boy would never let him do that, even if it meant he had to stuff his mouth full of mud to keep his teeth away from any blood. "Stop..." his hoarse voice clenches out of his throat, "I refuse to do it. How could you ever think of that as any sound option?"

He still notices the dead serious note to the gaze of the other, "Because it will help you regain your strength. We have to share the blood between us, for now.. It will not be enough to kill me."

"Trust me," he adds.

If they had not been in this situation; running away from their lives, Yeosang would have rolled his eyes playfully at the other, telling him how he already had proved to him that he was not someone to easily kill off. His head is filled with dread.

"But look at yourself... You are suffering just as much as I am," Yeosang flicks his eyes in another direction, a wavering sigh leaving his dry lips. It is not right to do, he thinks, biting the inside of his cheek.

But Jongho is crying because of him and just as much as he is in awe of seeing someone like him, being so much human, is pushing his guts into a mess of guilt and iniquity.

"You already know that is not true."

The boy swallows thickly, forgetting everything in just the few seconds it takes him to whisper his approval of the tempting offer, "Al..alright...I believe that you may be right."

Jongho sniffles and lifts his hand to wipe all the liquids away and dries it off on the grass. In the middle of that, a sudden smile bursts out on his face and he becomes oddly shy because of it all. Yeosang is not sure of what he sees is real, when his head is spinning the whole world around. He stares at Jongho with an inquiring and yet confused expression until the latter falls to the side, landing heavily down on the ground and lying still. For a moment Yeosang fears that the knight has passed out, but the feathery fingertips tapping against the back of his hand tells him that he is still awake.

"Sorry," Jongho whispers into the melancholy night air, still caressing his cold hand.

The boy answers as his eyes trail the fleeting clouds in the sky, "Why?"

"I should not be forcing you to do something you refuse," his words sound as if pressed out of tense lips and Yeosang thinks he catches a glimpse of them quivering. It takes him every will to keep himself from spilling even more emotions, focussing on the knight's hand and weakly braiding his own fingers into his. "Do not worry, I understand your concerns."

He swallows dryly and spends the following air counting stars. Then he gives the hand a little squeeze, "Where do you want my teeth?" Yeosang asks attentively. The silence afterward should have been killing him, but instead, he finds the thoughtfulness of the act oddly reassuring and safer. Ambient crickets chirp him in the ears.

"Wherever you want," Jongho whispers, "You decide."

Slow, and rather insidious, an odd buzzing increases from his insides, and Yeosang shuts his eyes against the forces pressing around his throat. It feels like hunger telling him to feed. Yeosang tries his best to ignore the avidity a part of him is drowning in when he lifts himself from the ground on shaky arms. The knight reacts immediately to his slight moving and shifts his free hand to hold around the boy's shoulder while he subsides the dizzy feeling. Looking down, he can only see bare skin that makes him want to go feral, but instead of losing control, he brings their braided hands up to his face. Hesitating, Yeosang lets his lips trace along the backside of Jongho's hand and he fills his lungs with every delighting sweet smell, wishing that he had not given in to the grieving hunger.

It all happens so swiftly that Jongho is far away from reacting to his quick movement. Teeth scrape across the skin on his wrist before suddenly steering around for a much sweeter savour, and Yeosang astride the knight pushes his head to the side and shoves his fangs down in the skin. Unaware of the knight's strained utterance, he gulps the blood down in silence.. And the only thing keeping him sane is their sealed fingers.

He will be asking for forgiveness afterward.

_____

The sky seems angry when he awakes at the meager amount of light shining through the dark heavy clouds, and the boy sighs soundly at the sight. Believable, the weather is reflecting his own state of mind so well, that it only brings him further down. He lays there for a long time before eventually thinking it might be favoured if he impelled them onwards before it starts drizzling down.

Yeosang rolls over before pushing his chest up by his arms. His head has lost its stinging, and pleasantly he feels less ill than the prior day. Glancing to the side he sights Jongho's peaceful figure resting between the tall grasses. A barely detectable red colour lines down from his neck and along his left shoulder, and the perception alone has culminating masses of nasty self-awareness pressing from his guts and up. He does not want to understand why he allowed himself to drink Jongho's blood while they both are so close to death.

Yeosang thinks that he really is one hopeless man.

He bends his head down again and adjusts himself against the man's frame, drawing his blanket from his own undressed body around Jongho too. "Are you cold?" Yeosang mutters and nuzzles his cheek close up against his. Short after, the man stirs from his sleep. Cosily, the boy senses how a cold arm drapes around his waist and pulls him closer. "No, not anymore." The boy blushes a light colour when he suddenly realizes what the other just said, and he smiles a little.

A drop of rain hits his nose, then a few lands on his exposed cheek and Jongho groans exhaustedly just before the sky starts drizzling down at them.

"I suppose we will have to get going now," bringing his right hand to caress under Yeosang's chin, he lets go again and gets up from their resting spot. Jongho helps him up as well, his firm but gentle hands tug the blanket around his shoulders before binding a knot. But Yeosang notices how his fingers tremble in the fiddling movements of tying, and he asks him if he will be alright, feeling the returning guilt gnawing at his insides.

Jongho's words are resistant when he tells him he will be fine, and so, will they continue their ride through the long stretching meadows before pulling up to the woods, where they hopefully will find a path.

The boy gazes out at the surface of the lake when they pass it. He watches for a long moment how the rings spread in the water. Soon they all collide.

_____

They have halted underneath a dense beech in the outskirts of the long belt with trees, shading for the rain while Jongho pulls at something in his pocket. Yeosang twirls his eyes around at their surroundings before he lets Harmony step closer to Jongho's horse.

"What is.." he starts, but when Jongho turns to show him the map he holds in his hands and unknowingly it brings tears to his eyes without him having any notion of why. His head suddenly floods with all awareness that he has no idea of where they are going when both Jongho and himself have lost a place to call home. Confidently does he know that his own father never will want him crossing the borders of his property ever again, and Jongho who has been living in the fortress most of his life, certainly does not have anywhere to return to.

There still is one person left.

"Yeosang?" Jongho calls at him, and as the boy hears the worry in his voice, he still keeps his face a little down. "I am sorry.. I just.." Yeosang bites the inside of his cheek, slightly anxious at just saying his name. But Jongho is calmly waiting for him to finish his line of words. He draws air in out of habit.

"Do you remember Wooyoung I have told you about before? I just... thought if it is possible that I could see him. Just once, and then never again.." Yeosang's string of timbre gets thinner while he speaks, until he suddenly runs cold, emotions clenching around in his stomach.

Jongho nods at his request and looks down at the map, trying not to wet it too much with his drenched hands and body, "We can do that." He watches how the man's eyes cross the outlining black ink and names of places and villages. At some point he twists around to look at the boy instead, handing him the map while he tells him: "Here, I think you will have to read it for me."

Yeosang nudges his horse further under the protection of the tree and unfolds the map in front of him. "Do you not know how to read a map?" Yeosang asks as his eyes trail over the surface. For a moment, Jongho does not answer his query and it has the boy turning his head at him confusedly.

"I have never learned the written language," sheepishly, Jongho answers, and Yeosang blinks with his eyes, "Oh, alright."

Although it is not the first time he has been following the lines across a map, it is still not something Yeosang finds himself an expert at. His knowledge of this domain is little to none, and it feels more than luck when he finds a lake that seems very similar to the one they spent the night by.

"This one," he says and taps on the spot, "Hilfair Loch. It looks like the lake we have passed." Jongho leans closer and Yeosang tilts the rough parchment as he trails his eyes south on the borders. There, he sees the bold letters engraved into the surface, a huge symbol of their cross beside the predominant church. Lectushire Fortress.

"You are right, it does look a lot similar," the knight says, regarding the lines weary. Yeosang glances at how the other's expression is slightly pinched, tuning his own senses watchfully. But suddenly, the boy is flung to the side, hands grasping the reigns and mane, as his horse is startled sideways. The map falls to the ground in great misery and Yeosang can only widen his eyes in disbelief at the sight of the parchment soaking in so much water. Before he even is able to respond, has Jongho already slid down off his horse and fetched it from the grass. He is speechless.

The man waves it in the air in an attempt to save as much as possible, at the same time he is in a hurry to take one last look at it, but it seems like an impossible task. The parchment is already ruined. Gulping, Yeosang gathers his horse and nudges it forward with his heels, every past colour drained from his face.

Something irks in the expression on Jongho's face, but before it develops into something defined, the knight hastily folds the map again and stuffs it back into his pocket. Long strands of wet dark hair clinging to his forehead and in an attempt to pull it away, he runs it back. Yeosang can only feel like drowning in all those masses of water.

"We continue through the forest. Hopefully, will we find a pathway that will lead us to the nearest village. Someone must be competent to help us there."

Yeosang whispers a small "Thank you" before the other finds his way back on the horse in a way that looks way more effortless than Yeosang knows what struggle has been fought.

_____

Jongho is right. Following hours of search between towering trees and dense shrubbery are they able to find a pathway they can follow. Fresh wheel tracks and hoof prints plow down into the soft soil, indicating that someone must have been here not long ago. The rain has stopped pouring down, leaving Yeosang still soaked wet in his blanket and nothing else. But that is one of his least worries. Jongho rides in front of him, his broad posture has sunken, and his nude skin has turned into a shivering, purple hue that Yeosang wishes nothing more than to warm and care for. It scares him. The knight is noticeably weak and spent, if not sick, in a way that he only has seen worse one time: When he died. He knows that he still has much to learn about their heartless being now, but he cannot withhold himself from worrying about where all this at some point will end. For they need their sustenance, and whether it is a village or not will be, it can only be done by killing a human.

Saliva already gathers around his teeth at the thought of tasting the sweet blood again, and Yeosang swallows it roughly. He does not think they specifically will die if they never find a source to feed, but the thought of straying somewhere on those lands without being able to move therefrom will forever haunt him. He did wonder if animal blood could be an alternative..

They do not meet any trouble on their way. When they pass the last tree in the dense forest, Yeosang's gaze draws across the lands in front of them while still having an eye following Jongho's back. He quickly catches sight of the construction not very far from there. There are more, scattered around the first as long fields of crops heave behind them. Jongho sways a little when he turns around to look at him with heavy eyes, before leaving his front again.

He quickly follows the knight further down the path, suddenly feeling the little stings of warmth cast from the sun above. Perhaps a village will be found close to here on the other side of the hill. He lets Harmony trot behind Jongho's horse who takes way longer steps than him, and Yeosang feels as if he can do nothing but cling to the back of the horse. When the trees start to thin out, the path they had followed already ended in tall grasses, and if front of them reveals a small opening close to one of the buildings. They halt before coming closer.

Between two of the trees, hangs a thick line with laundry - and Yeosang sees how they are not just normal clothes; those are expensive. The man beside him is giving him the reigns of his horse, making the boy widens his eyes in realization.

"No, Jongho! We can not - if they find out we will be penalized!" People with their pockets filled with riches can order whatever they fancy, and Yeosang knows that. But Jongho does not pause in any way. Instead, the half-naked man wobbles to the line and pulls at whatever he can see like he has no care in the world. And maybe, that is what is happening. Clamps, that priorly pressed the linens to hang tight, are torn away as the clothes fall into the hands of the knight instead. Yeosang watches everything unbelievably and with trembling eyes there all the time darts to see at the windows in the house. His sensitive hearing tells him that movement is happening inside of the masonry, and he paces to inform Jongho. Someone beats him to it.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

The man pulls at the last items before turning around with all the clothes still in his embrace. Yeosang's eyes are shaking. His muddled brain barely ranges what occurs in front of him, and yet his body moves by itself. He reaches down to grab a full amount of stolen clothes when Jongho throws it at him and jumps on the back of his own horse, kicking it forward at full speed as they run away from the commotion they just have caused.

⚔︎