𝟏𝟕𝟔𝟑 | 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲

- ♦♦♦ -

The world was in blurry around him. Awaking in the early hours of daybreak, light blinded Seonghwa's sensitive eyesight from where they started dotting the silent streets he stumbled down off. A rare terror burned in his feet, clumping with such weight that scared him in ways he shouldn't feel as a being that superior as himself. But the weight had him trembling with exhaustion on his feet, failing the simple task of walking in a straight line on the bumpy cobblestones. Seonghwa clenched his teeth together when pain jolted in the deep wound in his leg.

Woozily, he drew one of his hands under his hanbok, feeling the icky substance clinging to his palm where he touched the unsealed wound seeping with those precious drops of red. His shoulder collided with a wall when he suddenly lost his balance and stumbled sideways into the cool hardness, knocking him senseless for a moment. Seonghwa groaned irritated while he forced his limp body around on his shaking feet to scout the street for any wake eyes. But nothing more but the stench of blood had been trailing after him on his walk to here. His eyes went downward to where the trail stopped under him and the red stream made him grimace and pull the hem of the fabric up to see how clodding blood stuck to his skin, running down between his toes. He was losing too much blood.

Red swirled with his eyesight long before he even realised the red liquid had been running from his eyes and nose all this time when someone suddenly screamed at the horror wandering down those quiet streets of this morning. Seonghwa's head whipped around while blood poured into his sight when he knew he had been seen. But it mattered little when next he felt his body falling under him and his consciousness failing to remember.

♦

"Seonghwa-ssi? Seonghwa, are you there? Yun- Yunho! He awakes!"

Fingers desperately clutched to his shoulders as his senses slowly grew stronger and he could feel the rest of a body swallowing around his limp form. Worried eyes blinked down at him and Seonghwa's heart gave a sudden skittish clench at the realisation before his arms jerked out of their deep trance and pulled his youngest fledgling down to his chest, sounding so deprived even in his own ears.

Fiercely, San's face planted close into his embrace as he started rubbing his purring cheeks all over the touch with Seonghwa, being welcomed by his sire's hands sliding into the mess of his long hair.

Oh, my little Sani. He raspily breathed with his eyes falling shut with new coursing appease wrapping his aching body in the warmth of such care that always floated with San. His cheek moved to bare skin along his neck a moment before a pair of silent footsteps stopped in front of the bed he lay on, making Seonghwa crack one of his eyes open to glance up at the towering man. An expression of that of flushing relief had his fledgling fall to his knees by the side of the bed, hands clutching the edge as his forehead fell heavily down into it. He sighed deeply.

Weakly, Seonghwa strained himself and shoved San to the side until he rolled over with a possessive growl, attaching himself even closer to Seonghwa's side as he wouldn't let go. He ignored the deep rumbles pressing against his neck as he reached his free arm out, scooped his hand under Yunho's chin, and pulled his head up. Round eyes were already wide open and found his curiosity with contradictory nervousness.

"Do you wish to say anything?" dry rawness slit through the air when Seonghwa spoke his first words.

Silently, lips parted without a sound before his sight then flickered to San's nose drawing lines up and down Seonghwa's neck. The look in his eyes did a sudden shift.

"San-ah, do not even dare to think of feeding from him! He's too weak to be losing any more blood!" Yunho warned him, pointing an aggressively accusing finger at the younger vampire showing fangs in return.

Seonghwa barely noticed it when San's hisses changed into a whining pitch, wetting up along his veins with a cold tongue. But he didn't punch a hole. His entire regard was at his oldest fledgling about a trembling bunch of nerves beside him.

"Yunho.." he muttered when the latter's face flashed with anger and a touch of seldom dread.

His inhalation was shaky, "I...I was so scared," Yunho swallowed harshly, "When we found you laying there in the morgue the townspeople had brought you in...we.. I thought.."

Seonghwa furrowed his brows slightly as he followed the way the younger restlessly moved his eyesight around. His hair had grown so long since last he had asked him to cut it short like San's had been. Strands of it were falling into his eyes despite his attempts at tying half of it at the back of his head. Seonghwa gently caressed along his high cheekbone when his head fell, his chin nearly touching his chest.

"Why be scared? Yunho, you know that I cannot die," Seonghwa said matter-of-factly, though a slight smile on his lips deceived himself greatly. He shouldn't be too harsh on him in a vulnerable moment like this.

"I..I know.... but what if you hadn't woken up ever again? What would we then have done? We tended to your wounds for so long but they would never heal by the end of the days.."

Yunho reached out and wrapped his hand around Seonghwa's wrist already holding his head so dearly, "Seonghwa, what really happened out there?" he desperately whispered.

Sighing, Seonghwa closed his eyes and adjusted his position by pushing himself a little further up on his pillow. He groaned at the pain still digging into his thigh and side from where that deranged corsair had stabbed him. The points of San's fangs pulling at the loose of his skin felt more like a relief next to the aftermath of those wounds.

"For how long was I unconscious?" Seonghwa rather questioned after having let go of Yunho to pull himself up to sit against the headboard of his bed. San moved with him, his knee digging in between Seonghwa's thighs possesively.

"About 9 years and 5 months."

Seonghwa froze.

"Seonghwa, I need to know who did this to you - who hurt you this badly? Please, spare us the concern and tell us. It's for our safety too, as they surely must have known of your origin."

Slowly, his eyes moved up to search for the graveness in Yunho's stare, cutting deeper into Seonghwa than what had been expected. It stunned him for a moment, stripping his tongue from any occurring words trying to form in his mouth.

"I.."

Yunho's eyes flooded with water the longer time Seonghwa's lips didn't move any more than that.

"We thought we had lost you, forever," he insisted, "Forever.. is a very long time, and you of all know that. After a few years when nothing still had changed, I swear, hope was far out of my reach. I would have nearly given up if not San had clung to you like his life still depended on you."

As Yunho's words nudged against him, his hand reached forward and gripped the fabric draped across his legs, "So you tell me who did this to you and I shall take bloody revenge."

Seonghwa looked at him, expressionless.

"I'll kill them!"

Snarls pressed to his gorge in a choking manner, hisses and curses screeching into his skin with unfolding madness. San's chest heaved and sank like it wasn't enough to be digging his hands into Seonghwa's shoulders. The ancient vampire closed his eyes and leaned back, letting the pain sink into his limp body.

"San-ah! Enough!"

The claws pulled away before a new weight punched him in the stomach. His eyes returned with sudden sight, finding San's blood-red orbs staring right up at him. His upper lip was lifted to reveal his pointy fangs.

"Oh, Sani," Seonghwa cooed and reached out to gently tuck a few strands of hair behind his ear. The touch had the younger adorably blink his eyes up at him. "I am afraid that it must be a little difficult killing him, taking that he surely must have left to the sea a long while back."

San's lip fell down into a pout, hiding his threatening bite.

"Are you saying that he is-" Yunho started, but Seonghwa cut him off.

"Yes, Yunho. He was a seafarer, likely a corsair who knew his ways around beings like us," he lifted his head to his other fledgling, "He must be long gone by now." A long-awaited breath of air somehow found its way to fill his useless lungs and he parted away from holding San, instead, taking a look down his clean clothes.

"You said the wounds would not heal. Then how come I am not bleeding now?"

Suddenly, Yunho scrambled to his feet and turned around to grab the goblet standing on his nightstand. He returned with a firm expression, telling him to drink the blood. Seonghwa barely remembered his own question the moment his lips were painted red until he clearly felt the few fingers caress his cheek for a fleetly moment.

"You were not healing. For the first few years, at least. We kept on filling you with blood, but it flowed right through your body despite the pressure we put on your wounds. That was when San persuaded me to find a physician who would take a look at you." Seonghwa gulped the blood, slowly, attentively looking up at Yunho over the edge of the goblet. The taller sighed, "But as you know, every human would believe you to be already dead rather than alive. So we killed him after we had forced him to stitch your wounds up. We did not want to take any chances."

Yunho quieted again, biting his lip as he did so.

"And then? It helped me heal?" Seonghwa encouraged, taking another sip of his drink. His eyes strayed down at the little monster lying on top of his legs, glancing up at the silver in his hands full of anticipation. One of his hands moved to San's chin and tilted his head a little back before he held the goblet to his lips and let him have a taste. He felt the burning itch of Yunho's stare at him.

"Not exactly. Somehow the stitches melted away just a couple of days after the physician had finished his work and thus the blood we had given you flooded out of the open wounds yet again. I don't.." Seonghwa lifted his gaze at him again, "..quite understand how though, but it almost seemed like there was something in your body that did not let you heal properly. As if you were poisoned."

Seonghwa suddenly hunched over with a sputtering sound when memories of pain pierced into his side, his body recalling the moment when the corsair had punched his smeared knife in between his ribs and twisted it around.

"Who? Seonghwa, who?"

The ancient vampire winced when Yunho pulled him by his shoulders up again, looking him straight in the eyes. Lips slowly parted.

"He called himself Captain Hongjoong Kim, whoever that may be. He struck me once my guard was let down and I least expected it. It weakened me more than what it should have, but now that I remember, his blade may have been smeared in with some sort of liquid; likely poison as you say."

Seonghwa followed the slow movement of Yunho's head searching out San's surprised expression.

With his brows knitted, he looked back and forth between their talking eyes, "What are you not telling me?"

"Uh.." Yunho cleared his throat, demeanor anywhere but calm. "This captain is not just anyone. He's the Captain. Probably the most wanted pirate at the moment. The man is known to be ruthless, yet cunning and deftly gifted. That is surely why the authorities have not caught him yet even though rumors tell he's been on land here regularly for the last few years."

Seonghwa looked to San in his lap who was pulling away from the goblet. His tongue eagerly licked the few stains from his lips as he searched out Seonghwa's detained expression, "Yunho and I have been held back by the authorities a few times as well. For as you know, our ethnicity lines up with Kim Hongjoong's.." San placed his hand around Seonghwa's hip loosely, "They thought we were relatives and wanted to know everything we knew about him."

Yunho snorted before his lips curled up into a fair smile, "It was a sweet relief that they let us go once we mentioned that we were family of Lord Park. Suddenly they wouldn't stop apologising for the disgrace they had accused us of. You must have done wonders here for authorities to treat you like royalty!"

"That you could say.." Seonghwa trailed off while reaching over to place the goblet on the nightstand again. Yunho took the drinkware from his hands and brought it the last bit to the table.

Like hail raining from the sky, questions beat down at him before they slid down and piled up around him until he couldn't flee from his fledglings' inquiring stares. They searched for answers that Seonghwa was not ready to share with them. They needed to wait a little while more.

Heaving himself up, San made his way into Seonghwa's arms and nuzzled cosily into the crook of his neck. This time, however, his teeth did not touch his skin when he sincerely spoke, "Thank you for coming back."

A fluttering thrill warmed his insides a moment before a pale red fondled his cheekbones when Yunho leaned over and planted a kiss on his lips. "Thank you," his Yunho repeated once more and Seonghwa could feel every word engrave themselves into his taste.

∞