𝟏𝟔𝟔𝟎 | 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤

13 years later.

- ♦♦♦ -

Seonghwa did not know why they hadn't moved on yet, as the years only continued passing by. One after another. And Seonghwa barely even noticed the change through the blur of blood oozing out on the floor of their shared home.

San had grown more confident; his stance more sturdy and he dared look Seonghwa in the eyes - a development, even if it was only for a few mere seconds. As Seonghwa watched how his fledglings grew on each other it did not come to his mind that he was starting to show signs of attachment unlike any he had experienced before.

They were little but genuine, and Seonghwa was too ignorant to see the changes. It had slowly started when he offered them his blood to drink even if it was the time yet. Greedily like little monsters, hands clawed the offer with starving hunger as teeth pierced through hair and hide until Seonghwa pried them off again. An unknowing hand would brush over a cheek or two as the ancient vampire lost himself to the depths of his head. The notice of an eye was a ghost to his dreams.

The acts grew in size. When Seonghwa started keeping track of when his fledglings came home from their nightly wanders in the forest it was as if a gush of something familiar troubled with falling into place. It had already fallen into his habit of making sure to take an extra walk past Yunho's chamber to make sure they both had come home to the hanok, knowing they both were safe and sound and out of any hunter's reach. He could find himself unable to find any rest before hearing the familiar soft murmurs within the building.

Seonghwa had slowly come to a point in his drabbles of time where both of his fledglings were involved in his view of life. At first, he had not even realised their names dripping in ink on the parchment before he startledly rushed back to the phrase of beautifully sculpted letters of how he supposed Jeong Yunho was spelled. His eyes ran like the dripping ink, trailing down to the Choi San later on in the same sentence. Unsure of their names' spelling, Seonghwa read the sentence again, and again; growing more uncertain of why he even wrote it down to begin with.

When Jeong Yunho has been the first to find the path of mine pointless wanders, Choi San will be the one breaching and discovering mine deepest secrets that not even I knew still were to be found in the remnants of my accursed soul.

Seonghwa's face gradually changed the more he let his sight dance across the letters. Feeling like a fool.

♦

Seonghwa did not know what to expect when a knock landed on his door. It was the first time it had happened and only reluctantly with a pinch of disconcertment, he stood and walked toward the door. The air crowded with buzzing as the wood turned on its screeching hinges and his nostrils filled with freshly cut greeneries and the sweetness of pollen. When his sight lifted to the shyness of a hesitant tug on lips, Seonghwa towered over him with the confidence the other lacked.

San hid behind the sprouts of flowers, his eyes sheepishly glancing up at his sire from where he tilted his head to the side, a strand of outgrown hair falling into his eyes.

"For you," he breathed with bravery. Seonghwa stared at his crumpling form, drawing a line down to the multitude of colours. San swallowed with a sound.

When Seonghwa still made no sign of taking the flowers he had gathered, the younger elaborated himself, "Seonghwa-ssi.. these are for you."

San held out the flowers for him, implying he should take them. A moment after Seonghwa reached for them, taking them though still dazed by it all; and certainly not knowing what to do with the flowers. Once his senses cleared a little more again, San had already disappeared - leaving Seonghwa with an untamed fuss in his chest.

Clenching his fingers around the stems, he strode back into his chamber and crouched in front of a dusty cupboard he had not opened in many decades. Cobwebs wove the furniture close but Seonghwa simply dug a finger into the substance and pulled it away from the handle. The wicket swung open and Seonghwa dug into the wonders of his treasure-keep of antiques. He knew exactly what he was searching for.

The tips of his fingers brushed over the sealed broken pieces of ceramic before he pulled the vase out into the dim light of his chamber. The kintsugi glittered with veins of gold when he moved it to his workspace and placed it down at the left corner of the table. Wanting to get rid of the greeneries in his hand, Seonghwa quickly stopped the stems down into the vase and left it where it was, not touching it again.

For days he assessed the flowers' states of withering.

Every time he was looking up from his writings, he found himself staring at it, wondering why he had not yet thrown the flowers out of his window. The once sweet smell had turned sour while rot started devouring the lack of life; days after the flowers shed their petals from lack of hydration. The crust gathered around the vase and Seonghwa did not want to touch it. So he let it be.

When not staying by his work table, Seonghwa was beginning to notice how his eldest fledgling was watching him like a hawk in a tree. An uncertain look cleaved his eyes and Seonghwa found it difficult to perceive whether he should find it daunting or not. He felt marked by foreign starvation and pining dotting down his body.

But it stayed unspoken of and Seonghwa ignored it the best he could.

♦

One night, Seonghwa stirred awake when something cold suddenly held around his cheek. Fangs bared as he threw a hiss towards the touch of his skin, his eyes dripping with blood red as he jumped to sit. But the move was halted when the hand squeezed around his cheek and a whimper was heard in the darkness of his chamber. San's trembling form appeared in front of him and a sudden surge of terror went through Seonghwa's body. For something was missing by the younger's side.

"Where is Yunho?" he urged the instant he found his voice in the startling situation.

San stared at him with a widened expression. His hands searched for the help to his trembling limbs.

"Where," Seonghwa repeated.

The younger swallowed the sounds of distress coming from his chest, "He went hunting.. but not in the village! He-he- we-"

Seonghwa pursed his lips.

"This group of travelers.. we have been trailing after them for days in the forest, but it seems to be that Yunho has felt greatly bothered by ..something lately, and now, he just.." San trailed off, his voice so fragile that one harsh word would utterly break him. Bravely, he looked right into Seonghwa's irked expression, "I think he has left to kill them all."

It did not surprise Seonghwa the least.

Warily, the younger took a step forward, his knee coming to rest on the bed and Seonghwa was wildered by what was happening. The hand around his cheek was removed but instead, San was silently crawling into his bed, his head inching closer until he leaned against Seonghwa's shoulder. The ancient vampire stiffened, neither inviting San closer nor moving away from him. An odd feeling nestled inside him and he forced his words out through a taut throat. He lacked air.

"Why.."

His chest felt fuzzy and Seonghwa desperately urged the need to breathe again. He was warm, more than what was considered healthy.

San breathed deeply, "I needed.." he paused, "..And I do not favour the dark when being all alone." His legs slowly tugged themselves underneath Seonghwa's covers. The weight against his shoulder increased in size, the touch drawing down the side of his body until knees were pressing into his thigh. Seonghwa's tense body shuddered at the new sensation of another's closeness. His drawn lips slowly loosened and parted the slightest instead the more he could feel the mass of San sinking into him, carving his cheekbone into his skin. Nerves were sputtering under Seonghwa's skin, going so deep that he could feel the twinge in his bone - but San did not stop rubbing his cheek against him, planting himself in the middle of Seonghwa's internal disturbance.

Seonghwa sat still as a rock, his neck painfully stiff while he felt his form melt at the force of the other. He feared the time when the other would bite harder and break down his external protection.

But San was not here to be of any danger - he had just told him so. Seonghwa's eyesight returned to the darkness of his chamber when thoughts startled and knotted themselves at the sound of the younger purring. Like a cat. A big, dangerous feline. The resonating was chest-deep, rolling up his throat as it vibrated against Seonghwa's arm and it had gooseflesh growing across Seonghwa's entire body. Like that.

His voice caught in his throat when the heat of San's approving comfort reached something deeper down in his chest.

San was an affectionate soul. He cared for those around him, and Seonghwa saw it in the way he treated Yunho with so much heed. They could just as well have been at each other's throats every chance they got, and yet, they chose to get along. More, than Seonghwa thought was instinctively possible, considering they all lived for one reason in this world; blood.

And now he was seeking him out for comfort. Seonghwa did for good reasons not know what to do of himself as caring instincts were not of his predatory nature. San and Yunho were simply still too humane to have forgotten what emotions meant. But Seonghwa on the other hand, had not felt so many emotions he felt at this moment for thousands of years. He truly did not remember if he had ever even felt like this before.

When San pushed his knee forward, curling it around his thigh, the movement violently had a hiss shoved out of Seonghwa. Hastily, his arm reached around San's upper body, and then fingers suddenly splayed out around the side of San's head, causing him to fall closer to his chest. San's fingers were digging into his side as he froze out of pure shock.

Thrilling sensations surged right to his stomach, and Seonghwa might only have known to lash out at the other if not San's purrs had returned. Low and calm rumbles against his body - Seonghwa felt his mind slowly admission to the content of the other, mirroring the little purrs as the black cat in his arm released his claws from him. The frozen heart hiding beneath his ribcage was nudged with the softest of a warmth, a gentleness embracing his forsaken being. Seonghwa thought it was.. good. To some strange extent enjoyable, even, despite how unexplainable vulnerability was hoarding under his shell. Daunting, yet novel.

The touch of San's cheek against his heart made him melt like a cube of ice, sorrow bleeding all over his bedsheets as he tugged the younger boy tighter into his body. Seonghwa's fingers silently caressed the side of his head while the younger's purrs lulled them both into a deep sleep.

∞